


Fragments of Hope

by Kaleidoskye



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Harry Potter Next Generation, Next Generation, Next-Gen, Remus Lupin & Nymphadora Tonks Live
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:27:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 75,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28200144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaleidoskye/pseuds/Kaleidoskye
Summary: The smallest action can alter the course of the future.But even in a world where Remus and Tonks survive to know the peaceful times after the war, there are still obstacles to overcome, prejudices to fight, decisions to make and evil to subdue. And for a new generation, these challenges are proving just as difficult, in their own way, as the ones their parents knew before them.Alternative Universe. Remus and Tonks survive the war. Next generation spans 2016-2026.
Relationships: Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks, Teddy Lupin/Victoire Weasley
Comments: 17
Kudos: 33





	1. Ares

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU sequel to my canon compliant story, The Pink and Silver Lining. Prereading not necessary but feel free to do so.
> 
> Fair warning: This fic is non explicit (rated T) however it does contain adult/potentially upsetting themes and occasional strong language. It is next generation, set in a world where Remus and Tonks didn't die and where the events of The Cursed Child do not happen. I'm also fairly selective about what elements of Pottermore I take as canon.
> 
> Disclaimer: Anything you recognise belongs to JK Rowling.

* * *

**ARES**

_War_

* * *

"Listen to me – LISTEN RON!"

"I wanna help - I wanna kill Death Eaters."

"Ron we're the only ones who can end it! Please - Ron - we need the snake, we've _got_ to kill the snake!" Hermione was pleading with her friend, tears streaming down her cheeks, and Harry was trying to restrain him as well, but with a roar of fury, Ron pushed the two of them off him and dived out from behind the tapestry. Percy was now duelling Rookwood a few metres away.

The curse flew from Ron's wand as he snarled the deadly words, fuelled by grief, revenge and hatred. It hit the man square in the back. Rookwood crumpled within seconds.

"Ron, please," Hermione begged again, tugging at his arm. " _Please_! We'll need to fight our way out. You can do more fighting, you can take more people down, but please let's try and get the snake as well. Things will be even worse if we don't!"

Ron allowed himself to be dragged away, and Percy, released of his duel, went barrelling down a flight of stairs, firing spells left and right, flooring Death Eaters, blasting away dark creatures, every curse a tiny flare of revenge for his fallen brother.

How long he spent tearing through the crumbling corridors he didn't quite know, but eventually he reached the lower floor and burst out into the grounds, where several duels were happening in the courtyard. Percy stunned a man to his left, and then gave a bellow of warning towards a tall, thin man, who he recognised as his old teacher, Remus Lupin. A Death Eater who had previously been lying motionless on the floor was struggling to his feet and had fired a curse. Lupin, distracted by a wall crumbling to his left, had not seen it. At Percy's yell he whipped around and threw himself out of the way just in time, his wand flying out of his hand as he crashed to the ground.

Percy didn't hesitate. The jet of green light flew from his own wand, just as it had done for his youngest brother. Agony over Fred's death, hatred of those who had brought it about, a desperate, burning desire to make up for all his months of lost time allowed him to cast the lethal curse for the first time in his life with absolute ease. And against such rage and emotion, Antonin Dolohov didn't stand a chance.

"Here," Percy panted, retrieving the wand, which had landed near his feet, and handing it to his old professor. The older man was breathing heavily and looking shaken. There was no time for more than a quick exchange of thanks, before the realities of the battle swallowed them once more, each of them immersing themselves in a different duel.

**O**

* * *

**_Ten Years Later_ **

_2008_

"Daddy!" The blue haired two-year-old came toddling over as her parents and brother made their appearance in the living room of Shell Cottage. Some of the older children had attended the memorial ceremony to mark ten years since the downfall of Lord Voldemort. Hope and Albus, however, had been deemed too young for such an event, and so had been entrusted to George Weasley, who, still unable to bear the memories of that terrible night, had happily volunteered to stay behind and set up everything for Victoire's eighth birthday party.

"She hasn't been any trouble has she?" Tonks asked anxiously, as Remus swept his daughter up in his arms and Teddy gave his surrogate uncle a hug. He idolised George.

"None at all," George assured her, ruffling Teddy's hair and then waving his wand so that balloons continued to appear in all corners of the room. "She and Al sat over there, good as gold, playing with those old toy dragons that Charlie gave to Victoire. Have barely had a peep from her."

"Really?" Tonks looked astonished. "That makes a first! Perhaps you can come and babysit for us more often then!"

"I'd love to!" George assured them. "Where are we now on the explosives by the way?"

He managed a smile, and Tonks and Remus were taken forcibly back to a time, many years ago, in this very house, where they had announced the arrival of their first child to their friends, and Fred and George had immediately offered to babysit, Tonks agreeing on sole proviso there were no explosives involved.

Fred and George had never had a chance to babysit together at all.

"I'll consider exploding snap in a year or two," Tonks said. George kept the determined smile fixed in place, but they could see the sadness clouding his eyes.

"So where's the birthday girl?" Remus asked, changing the subject.

"They got back about fifteen minutes ago. She's upstairs getting her party dress on." George grinned properly. "In her element as always, all sparkles and frills, doing her hair, stomping around trying to find the clothes that Dom's borrowed... I'm sure she'll waltz down here all glamorous in a minute. Then Fleur's sorting the rest of the food and Bill's getting the games ready. Should be fun!"

An hour later, the party was in full swing. Victoire was indeed looking very pretty in an electric blue dress, her silvery hair, so like her mother's, cascading down past her shoulders. She and Teddy were giggling together about something on the far side of the room. Some of the younger kids raced back and forwards in a hearty game of tag. The adults, unable to forget the memorial of that morning quite so easily, were a little more sombre.

"How are you doing?" Remus asked Ginny, as they got some food together from the main table. Much like George, she had fixed a cheerful expression on her face, but her eyes were still tinged with red and her face slightly pale.

"Oh, all right, you know," Ginny sighed. "It's never a great day, is it? And obviously today it was even more intense and I'm so emotional at the moment anyway with all the stupid hormones… But I'm glad Kingsley insisted on - hi Teddy!" she said brightly, as he approached the table with an empty plate.

Teddy stared solemnly up at his godmother, looking anxious, and then put down his plate and gave her a hug, gently so as not to crush the bump that was very visible around her midriff. Ginny, looking a little surprised, returned it, a genuine, unforced smile spreading over her freckled face.

Remus squeezed his son's shoulder as Teddy turned his attention back to the food, looking hopefully at the piles of sausage rolls.

"Remus! Remus!"

The excited cry came from Hermione as she hurried across the room. Harry followed, also looking happy. They had clearly both come from work, Hermione clutching her briefcase she used for all her many case notes and Harry still in his Auror robes.

"We've got some news," Harry said. "Kingsley told us just after you'd all left. He wanted to tell you in person Remus, but you'd already gone."

"Dora was fretting about what Hope might be putting George through in our absence," Remus laughed. "As if a Weasley couldn't handle a bit of mischief! What's going on?"

"All the anti-werewolf employment legislation has finally been repealed!" Hermione burst out excitedly, before Harry could reply.

" _All_ of it?" Remus's mouth fell open in shock.

"All of it," Hermione assured him. "Of course, the really awful stuff got pulled years ago, you know that, but there were still obscure clauses, buried in old laws, and there's always some idiot who rears their ugly head and contests their removal and slows down the whole process. But we've been working away at it, and we're sure now, the Minister confirmed today. Werewolves now have exactly the same employment rights as anyone else in our world!"

She beamed up at her old professor, who was simply staring at her.

"You know this means that you'll have so many options going forward," she babbled. "I mean I know you don't mind what you're doing now, but it's not exactly what you wanted, is it? And you're so qualified, and now that there are no legal loopholes that can get employers out of hiring you, you can practically do anything you want. If they don't want to hire you then they'd have to legally justify you not being the best person for the job, not just dismiss you for the sake of it."

"Let him breath, Hermione!" Ron appeared at his wife's shoulder, also smiling, and shook Remus's hand. "Just heard mate. It's bloody ridiculous that it's taken this long but let's hope it makes a difference."

**O**

* * *

_2009_

"Missing Teddy?" Tonks poked her head into her daughter's bedroom, the day after seeing her son off on the Hogwarts Express for the first time. Hope was sitting on her bed holding Fluffy, the soft toy dog that Teddy had slept with nearly every night since his first birthday, but that he had entrusted his sister to look after while he was away at school.

"No!" Hope said at once, putting the stuffed animal back on her pillow. Tonks just smiled.

"Your dad's still at work, but why don't we go for ice cream in Diagon Alley? Or a Magic Milkshake? They've got those new flavours now!"

Hope agreed somewhat reluctantly. Magic Milkshakes were her absolute favourite but they never normally went there without Teddy.

Diagon Alley was quiet, with the back to school rush now over. Hope had to admit that she enjoyed her milkshake, even if Teddy wasn't there to enjoy one with them.

As they walked back past Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Hope gave an excited squeal and pointed towards the window of the shop. "Mum! They have orange Piggy Puffs! Like I said I wanted. Oh Mum can I get a Piggy Puff? Please, please, _please_!"

"They're called _Pygmy_ Puffs, sweetheart," Tonks said, but she was smiling. "I don't see why not, as long as you look after it. Let's go and have a look at them."

The Wheeze was quiet too, although due to its popularity far from deserted. Ron waved at them as they walked in the door.

"Well hello! Long time, no see!"

"I know, it's been what? A whole two weeks!" Tonks said, laughing up at him. "How's everything going?"

"Oh not bad thanks!" Ron said, sweeping his hand through his red hair. There were a couple of grey flecks in it now, Tonks noticed. "Hugo's barely sleeping so Hermione's pretty tired, but we're doing ok! At least Rose is no problem. Just sits there with her little puzzles and picture books all day."

"And how are you?" Tonks said. The words were carefully inflected.

Ron smiled at her. "I'm good. Honestly, doing so much better now. It was the right decision. One hundred percent."

Tonks nodded seriously.

"I'm glad. We miss you, of course, but you had to do the best thing for you. And it's not like we won't see you around!"

"Well, quite!"

"Where's George?" Tonks added, looking around.

"Up in Hogsmeade, some issues with stock. I think he's pretty relieved I'm here permanently now to be honest." He lowered his voice. "Verity's lovely but really not the person you want in charge all on their own." He caught sight of Verity herself coming out of the storeroom at the back and hurriedly changed the subject.

"So Teddy went off to school yesterday? What house is he in? I haven't heard yet."

"Hufflepuff!" Tonks grinned at Ron's quickly disguised disappointment. "You can't get _all_ the good wizards in Gryffindor, you know!"

"Mum!" Hope, growing impatient with the adult talk, tugged at her mother's sleeve. "You said I could get a Piggy Puff."

"Ah! Spotted the orange ones, have we?" Ron twinkled at her. "Only put them on sale yesterday, you'll be the first one to get one."

They crossed over to the cage in the window and Hope gazed in delight as the tiny balls of fluff came clustering up to say hello. One of them, the brightest orange one, nibbled her finger through the bars and she shrieked with laughter.

"I want that one. I'm going to call it Oompa!"

"Oompa?" Ron enquired.

She looked at him as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Like _Oompa Loompas_."

"Oh! Yes of course!" Ron said. "What are Oompa Loompas?" he muttered to Tonks. She grinned again.

"They're from a muggle children's book. We read it to Teddy when he was little and he's been reading it to Hope."

"Fair enough. Oompa it is! She's all yours!" Ron gave a little flick of his wand and conjured a smaller, individual cage, and then reached inside to the main cage to pull out Oompa the Pygmy Puff. Hope bounced up and down on the balls of her feet as he handed the small cage to her.

"How much?" Tonks said, reaching in her bag, as they went back over to the sales desk. Ron just waved a hand. "Nah, it's on me! Birthday present."

"You already gave her a birthday present the other week," Tonks reminded him.

"Well you can't ever have too many presents, can you?" Ron winked at Hope and she giggled. "Free of charge," he said to Tonks, more seriously. "Honestly. Sales are off the charts after last week, and anyway," he looked a tad embarrassed. "You've done loads for me recently. And it really helped, that chat we had a few weeks ago. Helped me get my head straight!"

Tonks smiled in understanding. "Well, least I could do. What do you say Hope?"

"Thank you, Ron!" Hope said, not taking her eyes of her new pet.

"You are more than welcome!" Ron assured her. "We'll see you soon, no doubt!"

o

"Dad! Dad! I got a Oompa! Look! Look!"

Remus reeled a little from the barrage of excitement that met him the second he walked in the door.

"Isn't she cute!" Hope was giggling in delight as the tiny ball of orange fluff bounced happily up her arm.

"She's got over Teddy leaving then!" Remus muttered to his wife, kissing her hello, and she nodded in amusement.

"So you were in The Wheeze I guess? How were George and Ron?" he asked, as he hung up his cloak by the door.

"George wasn't there, but Ron seems much better. I feel so bad that I didn't realise how down he'd been all this time, and it's so obvious, now that he's happier again, that he hasn't been himself for ages."

"I know," Remus said. "He did keep really quiet about it, remember. But that's great he's doing better. And he'll be so good in the shop! Especially with the younger kids."

Tonks nodded her agreement. "How was work?"

"Urgh, fine."

She raised a knowing eyebrow.

"It won't be forever!" she said. "The right job is just around the corner. I'm sure of it."

**O**

* * *

_2010_

Remus started down at the letter, in total disbelief.

_Dear Mr Lupin,_

_It is with great pleasure that we…_

This was not how he was used to seeing letters starting, not when they were addressed to him. Even the last two years since the complete removal of the anti-werewolf legislation had been difficult. Organisations still appeared unwilling to hire him and although there would have been justification to challenge the refusal of appointment, this was hassle that Remus didn't want to go through. Not to mention that it seemed a tad presumptuous to assume that the rejections were based on what he was, not what he could do. So he had stuck with his old job. He did not love it, but nor did he hate it, and the flexible working hours came in very handy for the full moon, or for looking after Hope when Dora had difficult shifts. He had continued to apply for jobs that came up if they looked interesting, occasionally getting as far as the interview stage, becoming accustomed to the habitual polite refusals but not allowing them to upset him as they may once have done.

And finally, here it was, in black and white. A job offer. A permanent job offer. And one he actually wanted.

"What's that?" Teddy, returned from school only yesterday for the Easter holidays, had appeared behind him. Hope, glued to his side as she always was in the days after he came back from school, before she resumed her pretence that she hadn't missed him at all, followed. She stood on tiptoe to try and get a proper look at the paper in her father's hand.

"It's a job offer," Remus said. "For that interview I had last week."

Teddy's face lit up. "The Magizoology one?"

"That's right!"

Hope was rather quiet after that, but Teddy was still buzzing around the kitchen when Tonks returned home an hour later, looking very tired.

"Dad's got a new job!" Teddy burst out excitedly, before she had even removed her cloak.

Tonks's face immediately lost her post-shift look of exhaustion. "Remus! Is it the one you wanted? The Magizoology one?"

Remus nodded and Tonks threw her arms around him in delight. "This calls for a celebration! Let's get something fun for dinner! How about a Whitby's?"

Teddy agreed at once, and even Hope brightened noticeably. Whitby's Wonderful Whirlpool Pizzas were a great favourite. But she was still deep in thought as they ate dinner together, and towards the end of the meal she blurted out:

"Luna does Magizoology."

"That's right!" Tonks said, looking impressed. "Well remembered!"

Hope had met Luna Lovegood only a few times in her life. She was cool and weird and beautiful and she travelled the world most of the time with her partner Rolf, who was equally cool and weird, although not quite as beautiful. But whenever they were back in the country, they always made the time to come and visit Luna's oldest friends, bringing with them exotic presents and extraordinary tales of the amazing creatures that they were hunting down.

Hope scurried up to her room as soon as they had finished eating, leaving Teddy still chatting animatedly to his parents about the good news of the day. Later, however, after she'd heard him come upstairs, she shuffled across the hall. He was sitting at his desk, absorbed in some holiday homework, but he looked up and grinned at her as she put her head round his bedroom door.

"Hey Dopey!"

No one else in the world was allowed to call her that. Not her friends. Not her surrogate family. Not her parents or her grandmother. Only Teddy.

Hope came right into the room and climbed onto his bed, picking up Fluffy.

"When will Dad start his new job?" She addressed the question to Fluffy's scratched little button eyes.

"Probably in a few weeks," Teddy said, as he flicked casually through a book to find a piece of information for his essay. "He has to give notice on his old one, and his references have to go through. But that shouldn't be a problem. Minister Shacklebolt himself is going to write one."

Hope pulled at the toy dog's matted ears, but gently, so as not to cause the poor animal more damage. He was already very threadbare.

"When will we see him again?"

Teddy looked round at his sister in confusion. "What do you mean, when will we see him again?"

"Well, when will he come back?"

"Come back? But he's not - Ohh..." he looked at her in dawning comprehension. "Hang on… did you think he was going to do what Luna does? Go round the world and hunt down new creatures?"

Hope didn't reply.

"Hope, that's not what Dad's job will be!" Teddy said kindly, turning his chair round properly to face her. "He won't be going anywhere, just into work every day. And his will be in the daytime, he won't even have to do night shifts like Mum does. Sometimes he'll be able to work from home, if it's just after the full moon or if no one else is around to look after you. And then the rest of the time he'll be working at the IMR in London, the Institute of Magizoology Research. He'll be doing case studies and collating research and publishing new findings and stuff like that."

Hope felt a great wave of relief wash over her, but she just looked down at the stuffed animal in her hands.

"I know that," she said, in a small voice.

"Of course you do."

Teddy just smiled and returned to his homework.

**O**

* * *

_2011_

Hope was curled up in bed, still shell-shocked by what had happened. She had thought it would make her father _happy_. It made her so sad to think of him down on his own in the cellar every single month, and how often had he and her mother _promised_ that he wasn't dangerous? If he wasn't dangerous then why shouldn't he have company? Maybe Mum didn't like to see him when he was in his changed form. And that was fine, but Hope didn't mind at all. And so, Hope had determinedly stayed awake until sunset, which was pretty late at the moment as it was the middle of summer. Then she had tiptoed downstairs, unnoticed, and slipped into the cellar, hiding in the little cupboard in the corner, ready to surprise her father when he got down there himself.

She must have fallen asleep for a little while, because when she came to, the main cellar door was shut and it was completely dark. She pushed open the cupboard door and could just make out, by the very dim light, the shape of an animal on the old bed in the corner. Hope padded over in her slippers and climbed up onto the bed. The wolf, sound asleep, didn't stir. Hope patted one of its ears – it was surprisingly soft.

Then, feeling pleased with herself, she curled up next to it and went back to sleep.

She had awoken to her father shaking her awake, roughly, his face paper white and his eyes furious. He had been angry. _So_ angry. Dad never got angry. Mum did sometimes, but not Dad. And then her mother, coming down to see what all the fuss was about, had been shocked and appalled as well, and Hope had rushed upstairs, confused and upset, and collapsed, shaking, on her bed, her face buried in her pillow.

o

"Mum? Dad?"

Teddy looked anxiously into the kitchen where his father, looking very ill, was sitting on a chair, his wife talking to him consolingly.

"Hope's really upset."

Tonks gave her son a small smile. "I know. We'll go and see her in a minute."

Teddy didn't move.

"She didn't mean to do anything wrong!" he burst out. "She just wanted to keep Dad company. She didn't realise it might be dangerous – she didn't know that you never go down there just in case the potion has gone wrong. I don't think she understands that it could go wrong."

"We know," his mother said again, while his father closed his eyes but nodded wearily as well. "We do know Teddy. We're going to go and have a proper chat with her. Please just give us a second."

Teddy, his face still scrunched up with worry, left the kitchen.

o

"Are you guys ok?" Harry looked concerned as he regarded his two friends that afternoon, swinging by to brief Tonks on a couple of things before they set off on an Auror assignment they had been paired together on. They were both still a little shaken from the events of the morning.

Tonks explained while Remus, still feeling ill at the thought of what could have happened – however remote the possibility - stared down at the table in silence.

Harry looked seriously at Remus as Tonks finished explaining.

"Don't beat yourself up about it. I know you'll be torturing yourself with thoughts about what might have happened, especially you Remus. But it _didn't_ happen. Wolfsbane hasn't let you down once in fifteen years, and it was fine as always and Hope's OK. I take it she didn't really understand what the danger might be, if it did go wrong?"

Remus shook his head. "We'd just been taking it for granted that she knew already. But then… why should she know? We've always done our best to impress upon her that a werewolf taking wolfsbane _wasn't_ dangerous, so that she wouldn't be frightened. It never occurred to me she would ever want to do something like this. But we've told her now. And I think she understands."

"Did you tell her about Greyback?" Harry asked.

"No," he sighed. "And maybe we should have done that too. But, the thought of him makes _me_ feel ill. How can I put that on a six-year-old? We didn't tell Teddy until we told him about everything else and even then he found it hard to take."

Harry just stared at him with understanding. "Al asked me about Voldemort the other day. I did my best to explain a bit without frightening him, but it was so difficult."

Tonks ran a hand through her hair. "It's just so hard to know what to tell them, and when," she said in despair. "I thought our rational was pretty solid. Answering any questions truthfully but not giving them full details about the war and everything until they are ready to start Hogwarts. But they find things out anyway, and there are always going to be things we miss out. And then something like this happens… How do we know if we're doing the right thing?"

"I know," Harry said. "I finally appreciate how hard it was for Dumbledore all those years ago- wish I'd cut him a bit of slack to be honest. But I think we _are_ doing the right thing. If they actually ask something, then I answer them. What good did being kept in the dark ever do me? But at the same time…" he spread his hands helplessly. "We can't just tell them _everything_ the second they are old enough to talk, it would scar them for life. We just have to be as honest as we can be, and make sure they know as much as possible before they start school, and accept that there are going to be times when we feel like we've made the wrong choice."

Tonks sighed.

"Thanks Harry," she said. "You're right. And we'd better go, or we'll be late."

She kissed her husband and Harry gave him a sympathetic pat on the arm, and the two of them left.

Remus rested his elbows on the table and put his head in his hands, still feeling sick. He always felt queasy the day after the full moon but today was much, much worse.

"Daddy?"

He looked up. Hope was staring at him from the doorway to the dining room, eyes wide and still slightly swollen, her nose very pink. He gave her a gentle smile.

"Hello my love."

"Are you still angry with me?"

He shook his head and beckoned her over. She came over hesitantly and he hoisted her onto his lap.

"I'm not angry," he assured her, brushing a stray curl out of her eyes. "I wasn't ever angry with _you_. But you understand why I was upset don't you? You understand that it's because I want to protect you? That I couldn't live with myself if I ever hurt you?"

Hope nodded. "I think so."

They sat in silence for a minute or two, Remus calmed by the warm weight of her as he held her tightly against him.

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"Did your dad attack you? Is that why you are a werewolf?"

Remus swallowed deeply, disturbed that she had asked the question that he so desperately didn't want to have to answer until she was several years older. It was such a horrible thing to have to tell her, but misinformation could be deadly – this morning had proved that. Harry's recent words echoed in his ears.

_What good did being kept in the dark ever do me?_

He reached for a box of chocolates that sat on the corner of the table and gave one to Hope. Chocolate could never fail to help in this kind of situation. And then he explained to her. Explained about a terrible man called Fenrir Greyback, who was now in prison for his crimes during the war. How some werewolves were just pure evil, and wanted to hurt others, and how he himself had fallen foul of this at four years old.

Hope looked frightened at the end of his tale. "Will he come and attack us again?"

"He's in Azkaban," Remus said, keeping his face impassive as the very thought brought back a whole wave of nausea. "With a life sentence in a top security cell. He won't come and attack us, Hope."

"Do you promise?"

Remus hesitated for a fraction of a second. Promise was a big word, one he had always resolutely avoided using if there was no certain way of knowing that he'd be able to keep it. But Hope was small and scared in his arms and her eyes seemed to widen even more at his hesitation. He pulled her towards him again, his voice muffled against her bright hair.

"I promise."

**O**

* * *

_2012_

Hope came bounding into the kitchen in her new dress. Bill was standing in the kitchen, speaking to her parents. They all looked very smart, dressed in their best robes.

Tonks looked over at her daughter and sighed.

"Didn't we already talk about the hairstyle, Hope?"

"But Audrey's _Irish_!"

"I know, love, but she and Percy are quite conservative."

"But I don't know what that means!"

"It just means I don't think they would really approve of the bright green hair on their wedding day. Please could you make it something a little more natural? Just this once?"

Hope looked a little sulky for a few seconds, then brightened.

"Well can I wear it red? Like Weasley red?"

"Yes! That you can definitely do!" Hope beamed and Tonks raised her eyebrows in relief at Remus and Bill. Crisis averted.

"We had some outfit drama too," Bill murmured to them, as Hope went through into the little room off the kitchen to find her shoes. "We said no to that dress in the end, and I do feel bad. Dom was so upset. But it is Percy and Audrey, like you just said. And Audrey's parents aren't exactly…" he made a face and didn't finish his sentence.

Remus and Tonks both grimaced sympathetically as well.

"Victoire doesn't help in the slightest," Bill added, sighing. "Prancing around, all twirls and frills, hair down to her waist." He stopped talking as Hope re-entered the room. "Anyway," he said, more loudly, "Just wanted to drop that by. We're going to head there now with those decorations Fleur made. Oh, and leave plenty of time to get there - we went to set a few things up for them yesterday and was a nightmare navigating. I know you're not the best one for directions." He winked at Tonks and she rolled her eyes.

"Is Dom upset?" Hope asked her parents, as Bill left and Teddy entered the kitchen too, also in his best robes, his hair light brown and cropped short.

"Were you listening to our conversation?" Remus said sternly.

"It's not my fault I overheard!" Hope protested. "I do have ears!"

"Big ears," Teddy chipped in. She glared at him in mock outrage and then turned back to her dad. "I'm only asking because I'm Dom's _friend_!"

"I know," Remus said. "And you're a good friend. Dom will be fine, I'm sure. Now," he raised an eyebrow, "about that hair?"

Hope sighed but made no further protests, and two seconds later her hair curled down to her shoulders in reddish gold spirals.

o

Hope waved excitedly at Roxanne as they arrived at the venue. She knew she wasn't really supposed to have favourites in the family – although maybe this was allowed when they weren't officially family – but Roxanne and Dom were definitely her favourite Weasley cousins.

Roxanne was looking very pretty, in a long, yellow, floral dress, her black hair in waves right down her back. Fred was dressed in navy dress robes and George, as one of Percy's groomsman, in a very smart waistcoat and bowtie. Angelina looked simply stunning, with her hair twisted into an elegant knot and wearing a halter neck dress that showed of her long neck and slender shoulders.

"See, Angelina's wearing green!" Hope said indignantly.

"A green dress is a little different to green hair, sweetheart," Remus laughed, as he hugged Roxanne hello and then kissed Angelina on the cheek. "Why don't you two go and find Dom. Bill and Fleur came ages ago."

Roxanne and Hope hurried up the steps to the hall. Percy was there at the entrance to great them, along with Ron, who was his best man.

"So good of you to come." He inclined his head towards them. Ron imitated both his gesture and his expression and then winked at them, and they hurriedly stifled giggles as they went past. Hope knew that it was bad to make fun of Percy – how often had her parents told her off for it – and she did like him really. But there was no denying that he was funny at times.

"There they are!" Hope said at once, after a quick scan of the room. There weren't many people there yet, but Dom and Louis were standing together in the corner, Louis as serious and well behaved as always. Dom was looking very forlorn, but did perk up at the sight of Roxanne and Hope hurrying over towards them.

"Hel _lo_ Dom," Roxanne put on a serious voice, imitated Percy's expression and sunk into an exaggerated bow. " _So_ absolutely spiffing of you to come!" Her cousin's freckled face immediately split into a genuine grin and Hope looked on in amusement. Roxanne may get into trouble sometimes with her don't care attitude and sharp sense of humour, but she never failed to cheer people up.

**O**

* * *

_2013_

The doorbell rang and Hope went bounding up the hall to answer it. "Hi Grandad!"

"Hello dear!"

She didn't call the other Weasleys by anything other than their names, even if they were all unofficial aunts and uncles, but Molly and Arthur were different. Molly and Arthur just _were_ grandparents, and she had called them Granny Molly and Grandad Weasley, just as everyone else did, for as long as she could remember.

Teddy had randomly stopped calling them that a couple of years ago, although when Hope had asked him why that was, he had just gone a little pink and changed the subject.

She looked past him to see Molly, her flyaway hair - still flame red with only a few streaks of grey, even after all these years and all these grandchildren - blowing in the early December wind, as she shut the car door.

"I'm really not sure I see what the fuss was about Arthur!" she called. "It didn't feel any different from the old one."

"Is that a new car?" Hope enquired.

"Yes!" Arthur said enthusiastically. "It's called a Buggle. No.. a Beatle. It's really quite marvellous. You see-"

"It's just an ordinary car, dear," Molly sighed, cutting over her husband as she enveloped Hope in a massive hug. "Really nothing that exciting. And floo powder would have been far more efficient!" Hope, very used to Molly's long speeches about how magical means of transport were much better than muggle ones, smiled placidly and stood aside to let them come in out of the cold.

"Are you going to make it fly?" she asked, and Molly looked at her with pursed lips, although the amused gleam in her eyes showed that she wasn't too annoyed.

"Err," Arthur looked shiftily at his wife. "No Hope. Of course I'm not. I learnt my lesson there."

He winked at her as soon as his wife had headed through into the kitchen.

"Do you need any help dear?" Molly asked Tonks, the second she entered the room.

"I'm fine Molly, honestly-" but Molly was already at work chopping some vegetables.

Hope sidled round the table and gave her real, blood grandmother, who was round for lunch as she always was on a Sunday, an extra hug for good measure. As much as she loved Molly and Arthur, she loved Andromeda more, and it seemed important that she should never let Gran forget that. Especially when she and Teddy were the only grandchildren that Andromeda had. Molly and Arthur had eleven real grandchildren! And would soon have a twelfth. Andromeda returned the hug fiercely.

"How is Audrey getting on?" Remus enquired, once they had said their hellos.

"She seems to be doing great!" Molly beamed. "Only a couple of months to go now!"

"She'll have her work cut out," Tonks said. "I still can't believe she got pregnant again two months after Molly was born! I mean, I wouldn't even let-" she seemed to realise her present company and checked herself hurriedly. Remus's eyes glinted in silent amusement. "Eleven months between them!" she said hurriedly. "That's going to be a busy few years!"

"These are Percy and Audrey's children remember," Remus laughed. "They'll probably be the picture of model behaviour."

"Even so!" Tonks said. "Two children under the age of two! Even if they are well-behaved. One was enough of a handful!"

"Is that why you waited so long to have me after Teddy?" Hope enquired, grinning.

There was an odd, dense silence in the little kitchen, and Hope knew she had said the wrong thing. She had never actually voiced that question aloud before, she realised, despite having wondered about it quite a bit. Arthur hastily moved over to help his wife with the vegetable preparations. Her father was looking rather tense and a very, very odd expression was twisting over her grandmother's face. But her mother looked quite calm, if a little sad.

"No," she said gently. "That wasn't the reason. I'll tell you about it later."

o

Any awkwardness was quickly forgotten and Sunday lunch passed in the usual chatter, much of it spent listening to Arthur talk excitedly about his new Eye-Pad, a muggle device that Mr Granger had given him when he himself got a brand new one. Arthur was most excited about having one as his very own, despite having no idea how it worked.

When Molly and Arthur had left that afternoon, Hope slunk out of the kitchen towards her bedroom, but her mother called her back.

"Hope, hang on a moment."

She retraced her steps.

"You asked about the age gap between you and Teddy."

"You don't have to say," Hope mumbled, unusually for her. She was normally one to pester and pester until she got the information she wanted, but the looks on everyone's faces, in particular her grandmother's, had scared her somewhat. "It's not even that long, seven years. I just.. wondered, that's all."

"You asked," Tonks said simply. "You know you're allowed to ask questions. And no, it's not an abnormally big age gap, but it is bigger than we originally planned. You see-"

She took a deep breath and Remus squeezed her hand gently.

"I was pregnant before. A couple of times, actually. But the babies died. Before they got to full term."

Hope stared at her in horror. She had never known.

"Sorry," she muttered, looking down at the table. It was not a word she used very often. She found those five little letters surprisingly difficult to say out loud. But the unexpected turn of the conversation that day had made her feel guilty and sad.

"It's OK," Tonks assured her. "It's not a secret. And we would have told you about it anyway, eventually. But that's what happened."

Hope tried to imagine a world in which she wasn't born, or where she was born as a different baby, a few years earlier. The thought made her head spin.

"Why did it happen?" she said suddenly, looking up.

Again, she wished she hadn't spoken. The odd looks from earlier were back on Dad and Gran's faces. Almost frightening.

"It just does happen sometimes," Tonks replied softly. "It can't be helped. And we were very, very lucky and happy that we had you, a few years later. Some women can't get pregnant again at all, or decide not to risk going through the pain of it again. We were lucky."

Hope couldn't help but feel there was more to it than that, if the expressions on her father and her grandmother's faces were anything to go by. She didn't ask any further questions, however, just gave all three of them a quick hug and went off up to her bedroom, still deep in thought.

**O**

* * *

_2014_

"So Louis's enjoying France?" Remus asked his friends, as they ate dinner together one autumn evening.

Fleur laughed. "He loves it," she said. "I think we _will_ be sending him to Beauxbatons at this rate. His French is nearly as good as his English now."

"And how's Dom doing?"

Bill looked more serious. "I think she's ok. I am still a bit worried about how the other students be, especially when she's in her tower and Roxanne's not around. But she seemed alright from her letters, and teachers were mostly very supportive when we had that meeting up at the school, apart from that God awful Babbling woman, and she won't be teaching her until third year at least. Even then, who really needs ancient runes nowadays? And she's almost as ancient as they are!"

"She was already going round the twist when I taught there," Remus said. "She didn't like me, either. Although-"

He broke off as the doorbell rang and got up to answer it, looking a little surprised.

"I'll get it!" Hope came thudding down the stairs as he reached the hall.

"Hope, you're supposed to be in bed!"

"But it's Charlie, I saw him from the window!"

" _Charlie_?" Remus looked at his daughter in confusion.

"Charlie _Weasley_."

"Yes, love, I know who Charlie is. But it can't be him, he's in Romania."

But Charlie was, in fact, standing on their doorstep, dressed in his usual casual clothes with a rucksack on his back. He grinned at Remus as the two of them shook hands.

"Sorry to butt in, but there's no one at Shell Cottage and as you're just down the road I wondered if I could intrude until their back?"

"Intrude away," Remus laughed. "And you're in luck. They're right here."

Bill and Fleur looked up in astonishment as Remus led Charlie through to the dining room and Tonks gave a cry of delight.

"Are you _ever_ going to give us warning of when you're coming over?" Bill grinned, as Tonks leapt up and threw her arms round her old school friend.

"Where's the fun in that?" Charlie chuckled, lifting Tonks off her feet with absurd ease. He seemed to get stronger with every visit. "It was a very last minute thing anyway. Had a few days off and decided to come over for Mum's birthday. And," he paused. "I have some news."

"Oh yeah? Not another new dragon species for the Ministry to keep tabs on I hope?"

"Not quite," Charlie said, sinking into a chair and taking the glass of wine Tonks offered him with a word of thanks. "But almost as exciting! Alex and I are engaged."

Tonks and Fleur gave delighted exclamations and Remus reached out to shake his hand again. Bill did too, although he was looking curious.

"We'll have to get married here of course," Charlie said, in response to his questioning look. "Romanian wizarding law wouldn't allow us to get married there, and anyway, all the people we want to come are mostly in this country. But there is no rule against us living there, once we are."

"So you'll stay in Romania?"

"For now," Charlie said. "It really is the best place for work and neither of us want to give that up. We'll have to play it by ear, though. It could get difficult."

"Well, congratulations," Bill said, beaming. "Just be prepared for Mum to go into full excitement frenzy. She thought her wedding planning days had ended with Percy."

There was a scuffle by the dining room door. The adults turned in time to see a bright head retreating quickly out of sight.

"Hope!" Tonks said. "What have we told you before about listening to conversations?"

"I couldn't help hearing!" Hope protested, sticking her head back in and looking sheepish. "You were talking loudly. And it's a _happy_ thing so I should be allowed to stay up and celebrate with you."

Charlie was grinning. He was very fond of Hope. "Ahh, I'm sure you can stay up just this once?" he said, looking from Remus to Tonks, who raised her eyebrows, but nodded.

Hope came skipping over. "Can I wear my hair green on your wedding?" she asked Charlie, as she jumped up onto a seat. "Or are you conservatories?"

"Conservatories?"

"Conserva _tive_ ," Remus correct her. "Like Audrey and Percy. We said they wouldn't really approve of green hair at their wedding," he explained to Charlie.

"Although they've surprised me lately," Bill put in. "Not quite as conservative as we thought."

"Ah I see," Charlie laughed. "No, we are definitely not conservatories, Hope. You can wear your hair whatever colour you want."

Hope looked delighted at this, as Tonks conjured her a glass of juice.

"So," Charlie said, looking between Bill and Fleur. "Which of you is going to break it to Victoire that being the only Weasley offspring without a godmother is going to be permanent arrangement?"

"Not it," Bill said at once, grinning at Fleur, who just rolled her eyes. Victoire had become very fond of Alex in the five years that the family had known him, but it hadn't stopped her occasionally expressing her disappointment that everyone else had a godmother, or at least a godfather who had a _wife,_ and she didn't have either.

"She'll be the only one with two godfathers though," Tonks pointed out. "Can't say fairer than that!"

**O**

* * *

_2015_

It was the first time since Remus's seventh year at school that Christmas had fallen on the full moon, and with Tonks having been pressured into extra shifts at work, it was a very sober affair. Remus retired not long after sunset, and Teddy and Hope played some quiet games together before heading up to bed themselves. There was, at least, the traditional Weasley gathering to look forward to the next day.

Their mother didn't get home until ten o'clock the next morning, looking completely wiped out.

"I'm sorry Teddy, but I don't think I'll be able to make it today," she yawned, not long later, speaking to her son in the kitchen. "I'm just so tired, and your Dad's really not that well. He never is after the mid-winter full moon – I think someone should stay with him just in case. I'll let Angelina know, of course, but you don't mind taking Hope and going just the two of you, do you?"

"Of course not!"

Teddy found his sister up in her room. She was dressed in jeans and her favourite jumper, with the penguin that waddled when you touched its beak, but her hair was unbrushed and she was just sitting on the little chair in the corner of her room, not moving.

"You nearly ready?"

She looked up at him, uncharacteristically anxious. "Do we have to go?"

"What do you mean do we have to go? You _love_ the Boxing Day meet up! It's your favourite Weasley gathering of all. And you've been looking forward to going to George and Angelina's house for weeks!"

"Yeah, I know! But-" she didn't finish her sentence.

"Dad won't be on his own," Teddy said, eyeing her shrewdly. "Mum's going to stay here too, she's really tired. So it will just be me and you. And we don't have to stay that long, if you don't want to."

Hope looked unconvinced.

"Hope, Dad would want us to go and have fun!" Teddy assured her. "He really would. He'd be sad to think that we missed out on the fun because of him."

Reluctantly, Hope went over to the dressing table and started to fix her hair.

o

She did feel a little more excited when they arrived at the house. George and Angelina's house was her absolute favourite of all their friends', with its odd, quirky bedrooms and slanting ceilings, and two different staircases at either end of the house, so that you could go up one and come down the other, perfect for hide and seek. Dom, arriving around the same time, immediately dragged her upstairs where they were to help Roxanne decide what to wear.

Teddy went through to the kitchen, carrying the food that his mother had given him to bring over. Angelina was getting several stacks of plates out of the cupboard and smiled at him as he came in. "Hi Teddy! How are you doing?"

"Fine thanks!" He gave her a hug.

"I got your mum's message, are they ok?" she said, anxiously, but as Teddy was about to reply, George came into the room, looking irritable.

"What's up?"

"Roxanne," George said grimly.

"Oh for heaven's sake, what's she done now?"

"Nearly burned the house down, by the look of it!" George said. "Tried to use a Wheeze Firework Wand as a curling iron."

"Well, they were lying around everywhere and I did tell you to put them away!"

Angelina sounded rather annoyed.

Teddy hovered awkwardly. He was well aware that George and Angelina argued quite a lot, although he hadn't ever witnessed more than the occasional bicker. They kept their full on arguments very private, but Fred had told him before that his parents either got on fantastically well, the very best of friends, or else they were at each other's throats. There was no in between. _Volatile_ , Teddy had once heard his mother use to describe them, which struck him as odd. George always seemed so outwardly calm and steady and jovial. But Teddy understood, and was understanding more and more as time went on, that however much their parents tried to be transparent and honest, some truths would always remain hidden, some stories untold, buried deep in a complicated past that his generation would never fully comprehend.

However, Angelina's comment did not provoke any sort of argument on this occasion, and George turned to Teddy, smiling. "Hey mate! Good Christmas? Are your mum and dad ok? Sounded like they weren't doing too well!"

"They're fine!" Teddy assured them. "Dad's got a headache but he's better than he was this morning. And Mum's just exhausted."

"Savage is inhuman, making her work that many back to back shifts," Angelina said grimly. "Harry's shattered too - he's not coming today either. Just because the two of them are so invested in the department doesn't give Savage the right to abuse that. Still, she's got a few days off now, right?"

Teddy nodded.

"I saw Hope just now," George added. "She seemed a bit subdued. She's normally bouncing off the walls this time of year."

"She'll be ok once all the games start," Teddy said. "I think she's just worried about Dad, although she doesn't like to admit it!"

"God love her," George muttered. "We'll get the fun started soon, don't worry. Just waiting on Ron and Hermione - Ah!" he said, as there was a crash from the next room, followed by a fluid string of swearwords, an indignant reprimand and several childish giggles. "That would be them!"

o

As much as she enjoyed the day, Hope was glad to get home. They returned via floo to find their parents on the sofa in the living room, both fast asleep.

"We'll just leave them," Teddy whispered. "They'll go upstairs when they wake up."

Hope mooched into her room and sat down on her bed. Teddy followed her, looking concerned.

"What's up?" he asked her. "You're not normally this quiet, even when Dad's not feeling well!"

Hope would not have asked the question to anyone else. But she could ask Teddy. Teddy always looked out for her and always told her the truth and never, ever laughed at her. She looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Teddy, is Dad going to die?"

Teddy appeared taken aback. He blinked a little and stared at her.

"He will one day," he said, after a long pause. "We all die eventually. You know that!"

"But – but," Hope looked very anxious, twisting the wool of her jumper. "But will he die soon?"

"Don't do that, you'll make a hole in it and it's your favourite!" Teddy gently prised her hands away. "Hope, we can never know when people are going to die, but I hope that Dad won't die for a very long time. Or Mum. Or any of our friends and family for that matter."

Hope just looked down at her shoes.

"What's brought this on?"

She just shrugged.

"Come on, you're going to have to spit it out! I won't tell anyone. Swear!"

His eyes shone with affection, but she didn't look at him. She stared determinedly down at the floor.

"There was bit of an article, on that scrap paper Mum gave me to draw on. It was about werewolves and it said they had lower life exp- expentacy.."

"Expectancy," Teddy provided for her. He looked at her seriously.

"I read that article, I think. But it was just from one study Hope, and it wasn't conclusive at all. It's a very hard thing to measure because so many werewolves don't settle down and live a normal life like Dad did – they live out in the wild, often alone, with poor diet and poor health."

"That's really sad," Hope murmured, although then she thought of Greyback. She wouldn't mind if he lived alone with poor diet and poor health and died very, very soon.

"I know," Teddy said. "But things are much, much better for werewolves than they ever were before, and more and more of them are trying to live life the way Dad does. And Dad's fine most of the time! He does get ill sometimes, but he always feels back to normal within a day or so, doesn't he? It's been like that ever since he started taking his potion, he hasn't got worse or anything. Anyway, you probably only saw the first few lines of the article didn't you? The end of it was quite positive. It said that taking Wolfsbane regularly over the years was definitely the key to werewolves living a longer, healthier life, and that if a permanent cure was ever found then then it could change everything!"

Hope nodded, feeling slightly better.

"And I'll tell you a secret," Teddy whispered. "But you have to not say anything either. Not yet anyway. Swear?"

She nodded again eagerly.

"That's what I want to do after I leave school in the summer," Teddy said. "I want to go and do research at St Mungo's, and find a permanent cure for werewolves."

**O**

* * *

_2016_

"Hope," Tonks said, sitting down next to her daughter one summer morning. "Do you remember how we've told you before that there are things we need to speak to you about, before you start school?"

Hope nodded. She had been expecting this for a while now, ever since her Hogwarts letter had arrived mid-July.

Oh, she knew plenty about the war, had heard snippets from her parents and from other friends and family, and quite a bit from Harry himself of course. But the full story, her parents had always insisted, would wait until she was about to go off to school.

"We need to warn you that it's not a nice story," Remus said, as she eyed them intently. "But you need to know Hope. We were too involved in the war, as were Harry and all the Weasleys, for you to be able to go off to school without knowing the truthful version of what happened."

The two of them talked to her for a long time, telling her about Voldemort's rise, some of the dangers that had been involved for them as members of the Order of the Phoenix, how they had lost friends, loved ones, family members. How they had had to spend months in hiding, most days not even leaving their home, the very house they still lived in now, although it was unrecognisable nowadays to how it had been back then. How Teddy had been born just a few short weeks before Voldemort's final downfall. How her mother had had to choose between staying with her son and going off the final battle.

They told her about the final fight, how Fred Weasley, George's twin, had been killed. How other friends had died and so many more had nearly died.

The question fell bluntly from her lips when they had finished speaking.

"Did you nearly die?"

There was a small pause before either of them spoke.

"Anyone could have died in that battle," Tonks said. "We were very, very lucky that we didn't lose more people, to be honest. We all had near misses, but yes, your Dad in particular."

"I nearly got hit by a curse," Remus explained. "If Percy hadn't given me warning then I would have been. Even a second later may have been too late. And he retrieved my wand as well."

"So…if it weren't for Percy…" Hope swallowed with difficulty. "You – you'd be…"

Remus nodded seriously. "I almost certainly wouldn't be here, Hope. And your mother turned up at that battle just minutes after Percy brought Dolohov down. He may have killed her too."

Hope stared into their serious faces. She tried to imagine a world without her kind, gentle father, or without her cool, funny, fiercely principled mother. She couldn't. And of course, if they had died in that battle, then she wouldn't be here at all.

She thought guiltily of the times she had mocked Percy. Just jokingly, of course, but she, Dom and Roxanne had often laughed together about him behind his back. Even her parents' frequent reminders that she should not talk about family in that way had not been able to stop her sniggering about him occasionally when he looked particularly pompous or spoke in his most self-important tones.

Suddenly, when faced with the thought of her parents not being there at all if it weren't for him, it did not seem so funny at all.

She would have liked to apologise for what she had said about Percy in the past. But Hope still found it very difficult to apologise. She often felt the remorse. Expressing it was another matter entirely.

"Are you OK?" Tonks said. "It's a lot to take in, Hope, we know that. If you want to ask more questions about it, or talk about it, just go right ahead."

Hope hesitated, but shook her head.

"Sure?"

She nodded. "Can I have some chocolate?" she added hopefully. Her dad in particular had a habit of giving out chocolate after difficult conversations.

Remus chuckled. "Go on then."

Hope got up from the sofa and went through to the kitchen. Her brother was sitting at the kitchen table, scribbling some notes down on an old bit of parchment.

"Hey Dopey!"

She just smiled.

"You ok?" he said, noticing her slightly pale face and wan expression.

She nodded, hastily engrossing herself in a huge slab of Honeydukes chocolate she had pulled from the cupboard.

"Did Mum and Dad tell you all about the war?" Teddy was looking sympathetic.

She nodded again, but didn't speak.

"Pretty brutal, huh?"

Another nod.

"Want to talk about it?"

Shake of the head. She wasn't even sure she wanted to think about it right now. But something else was bothering her, and had been for a little while.

"Teddy, will people think I'm weird? At school?"

Teddy laughed affectionately. "Course they will, you _are_ weird, Dopey." But as she looked no less worried, he went on more seriously. "Do you mean because you're a metamorphmagus? Most people think it's pretty neat to be honest. I never had any problems. It's a bit annoying when people ask you to morph on command, but other than that..."

"But also… because of Dad being a werewolf, and because of everything Mum and Dad have just told me, about the war and everything. Will people be horrible about it?"

Teddy pondered this. "I wouldn't say horrible," he said. "You will get some comments. And questions. It's inevitable really. With our connection to Harry Potter, and the Weasleys, with our parents having been in the Order and fought in the war – and Dad fought in both wars of course. But most people are nice, Dope, honest. Remember that everything they did is the reason that we all live in peace today. And anyway," he grinned. "You won't have a single year when there isn't someone else in the family at school with you. Victoire and Fred and Dom and Roxanne will be there when you start. And James of course. Then Al and Rosie will be just after you. Then Lily and Hugo, and Louis, if he doesn't end up going to Beauxbatons. Having so many family members around will help. No one messes with the Weasleys!"

"But they aren't _really_ family," Hope said. "Not completely. I know they're as good as, and we all see them as family, but they aren't blood relatives."

Teddy smiled again.

" _That_ doesn't matter at all!" he said. "Trust me."

He looked thoughtfully out of the kitchen window.

"This, sort of…bubble… we have – us and the Weasleys and the Potters, and Neville's family sometimes… It's a very strange thing," he said at last. "It's taken me a long time to realise how unusual it is, to be honest. Because when you're in it you don't see it as odd. You take it for granted that everyone is your family and your friend all rolled into one, and our parents are all godparents to each other's children, sometimes two or three times over, and that all we all get on – stupid arguments aside obviously - and we see each other all the time and we all have each other's backs."

Hope reflected on this.

"That's not weird, though is it?" she protested. "Aren't you supposed to be friends with your family? And stick up for them?"

"Well, I guess so," Teddy acknowledged. "But I think you will see what I mean at some point, Hope. It's not like any other group of friends or family that I know of. I have great school friends, really I do, and I hope I stay in touch with them, but I can't imagine ever having something like what we have with the Weasleys. And I've met plenty of people at school who were part of giant wizarding families, but it's still not the same. Their families aren't anything like ours."

"Why not?"

Teddy mulled over this as well before replying.

"I think it's because they were all in the Order of the Phoenix, so they shared in the war together in a way that most people didn't. And maybe because the Weasleys had children quite young, long before any of their school friends did, and also because nearly all of them married people from very small families, or people with relatives who live far away, so they all spend more time with the Weasley side of the family than anyone else. And it's also because even now they stick together, and consult each other on the decisions they make, and try and make sure that the division that was part of their generation doesn't ever get passed on to us. It's something pretty unique, to be honest, but other people just don't understand it."

"So people _will_ be horrible?"

"No, I don't think people will be mean. But it does cause a real mix of reactions. Some people don't really notice or care. Some people are reluctant to be too friendly, because they always feel a little apart from us. Some people think we are too full of ourselves, although I hope that's not true. Others are resentful, or jealous, because they wish they had what we have. And some people... just think it's the coolest thing in the world."

Hope hadn't really followed everything her brother had said. He liked a ramble sometimes, did Teddy. But she grinned at that last sentence. She thought it was the coolest thing in the world as well.


	2. Athena

* * *

**ATHENA**

_Wisdom_

* * *

_September_

"What house do you think you'll be in?"

Dom Weasley looked across at her friend from her position on the floor of the train compartment as the two of them examined Dom's extensive quidditch card selection. Roxanne, on the seat just above her, was braiding her cousin's curly red hair into two elaborate French plaits.

"Well...Mum thinks I'll be in Hufflepuff and Dad says Gryffindor. And Teddy keeps saying I'll be in Slytherin, although I think he's joking…"

"It would be great if you were!" Roxanne said, not looking up from the intricate braid. "It's really not as bad as people say, you know. Most people are really nice. There are a few idiots, but you get them in all the houses, even Gryffindor, whatever most of our family thinks."

"I know, I know," Hope said. "And Gran was a Slytherin, of course. I'm sure she'd be happy if I was. But… I'm just not sure I really _want_ to be. And Mum and Teddy have given me so much to live up to in Hufflepuff, and as for Gryffindor…" she fell silent as the three girls reflected on the family legacy now permanently linked to the house. Dom's father, both of Roxanne's parents, and grandparents, most of their cousins, Harry Potter their famous uncle and his two best friends. And Hope's own dad and the Marauders, whose antics were now stuff of Hogwarts legend.

"Definitely not Gryffindor!" Hope said firmly. "Our families have already done it all for Gryffindor."

"That leaves Ravenclaw," Dom beamed. "Oh I so hope you're with me! I would love it!"

Hope had been secretly hoping this for a while now too, but there was a nagging worry in her mind.

"We – we will hang out at school, won't we?" she said. "Even though you're older?"

"Of course we will!" Dom said at once. "If you want to, anyway. You'll be way more popular than me Hope, with your morphing skills and everything, especially as you're Teddy's sister. Everyone _loved_ Teddy. You'll probably make much cooler friends than me. People think I'm a freak, remember?"

But Hope just shook her head. No one was cooler than Dom. Except for maybe Roxanne. But Roxanne was cool in the obvious sense, with her stylish clothes and amazing hairstyles and her total lack of regard for what anyone thought of her. Dom was cool for other reasons, and in Hope's opinion, was the bravest person she knew. Her parents said so too, that Dom and Roxanne were living proof that the old house values were rubbish, and that you didn't have to be in Gryffindor to be brave, or Hufflepuff to be loyal. And Teddy, of course, insanely intelligent and top of his year, had not needed to be sorted into Ravenclaw for that to be the case.

Hope knew she wasn't as clever as Teddy, but that didn't mean she couldn't be in Ravenclaw, with Dom. She shuffled through the cards in her hand.

"Ooh, here's Ginny!"

"I've got three of her, you can have one."

"I would love to be able to play like her." Hope stared jealously at the card. Ginny's wild red hair streamed behind her as she swooped into a dive with the quaffle under her arm. "I know I went to her last ever match, but I can't remember it – I was only four."

"I remember that!" Roxanne said. "She was amazing. The Harpies were undefeated that season! There you go," she added, deftly finishing Dom's second braid and securing it with a ribbon.

"Can you do mine?"

Roxanne laughed over at Hope. "You could probably do it yourself in about three seconds just with your mind. But yeah of course I will," she added hastily, as Hope looked awkward and Dom gave her hair - currently long, red and streaked with orange and gold - a slightly envious look.

The talk of houses was abandoned for the time being, but many hours later, as the train pulled into Hogsmeade station, Hope felt her first tremor of anticipation.

"Good luck!" Dom whispered to her, as they stepped down onto the platform, and she and Roxanne pointed Hope in the direction of the group of first years. Not that there was any real need – she could already make out Hagrid's bulk on the other side of the station. "Think Ravenclaw!"

_Ravenclaw_ , Hope thought at once. _Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw._

O

Hope was still thinking Ravenclaw forty-five minutes later, as she stood in front of everyone in the Great Hall and waited for her name to be called out.

"Know where you want to be?" Michael Longbottom, who was standing in front of her, grinned round at her cheerfully. Hope liked Michael very much, although she did not see him as much as she saw the Weasleys and Harry's family. The Longbottoms led hectic lives, but as Neville was Albus's godfather, they did meet up with them sometimes in the holidays. She didn't answer Michael's question. Neville was head of Gryffindor, after all, and she didn't want to offend them. Although, the Longbottoms seldom took offense at anything, from what she could tell.

Michael was placed in Gryffindor within about two seconds of trying on the hat, and then it was her turn. Professor Flitwick, tiny and wizened, smiled at her reassuringly before placing it over her eyes.

"Let me see," said a little voice. "Hmm, most interesting. Bold. Shrewd. A good heart. Somewhat stubborn I see, and a tendency to mask your true feelings, but they are both family traits, of course."

Hope had been forewarned about the hat's bluntness. She just sat there patiently and forced the thought into her mind.

_I want to be in Ravenclaw._

"Ravenclaw?" said the little voice. "Interesting. You have brains, my girl, no doubt about that, but it really wouldn't be my first choice for you. In fact, I think it may suit you least of all. Your nature is Gryffindor, I am sure, but you would do well in Hufflepuff. And you even have the makings of a fine Slytherin. Ravenclaw… I am less sure about."

But Hope had made up her mind long before sitting on this stool. She wanted to be with Dom. Dom was one of her favourite people in the world, had always been her friend, and if she was in Ravenclaw they would be able to see each other all the time. She didn't want to be in Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. Both came with a terrible pressure of having to live up to her famous family. And Slytherin meant stigma, or so she felt, even though her grandmother had impressed on her many times that Slytherin did not mean evil, and Roxanne loved being a Slytherin, and said her parents had been nothing supportive about her unexpected sorting choice.

_Ravenclaw_ , she thought again. _Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw_.

The hat gave a resigned little sigh.

"Stubborn indeed. Very well. If you're sure. That's what it shall be."

O

Hope woke up to bright sunlight streaming in through the window and sat up in bed, full of excitement for her first day. The other members of her dormitory were already awake and getting dressed, and so Hope hurriedly got up as well and started hunting for her clothes.

"You're Hope Lupin, aren't you?" one girl said suddenly.

"Yes." Hope eyed her critically. Petite, with a pretty face and curly black hair, she was already dressed in a neatly pressed blouse and short black skirt under her robes.

"Elodie Carmichael." The girl held out her hand, and Hope shook it. "This is Marion Lennox and Natalie Dubalski." Hope nodded at the other two, who were standing a little back from Elodie.

"I think we're the only four in here," Natalie said. "I don't remember anyone else being sorted into Ravenclaw yesterday, do you?"

"Your brother was Head Boy last year, wasn't he?" Elodie cut over Natalie as Hope shook her head in response. "My older sister told me all about him. Apparently, he's really fit."

"If you say so." Hope rolled her eyes and pulled a revolted face. "I kind of don't see him like that, you know… thankfully! And anyway, he's a metamamorphmagus. We both are. We can change our appearance whenever we want, so we can be as good looking or as ugly as we like."

Even as she said it, she knew that wasn't entirely fair. Teddy rarely altered his appearance at all, other than to change his hair to garish shades of purple or turquoise, something their mother heartily encouraged. The face he bore was his own, and even Hope had to admit, reluctantly, that if he hadn't been her brother and therefore completely unattractive on all physical levels, she may have seen him as good looking too.

"That's awesome!" Elodie looked impressed. "Can you change something now, so we can see?"

Hope felt a prickle of irritation. She despised being asked to morph on command, as did Teddy and their mother, unless of course it was for the purpose of their family "morph-offs", a dinner time tradition dating back to before her own birth. However, she dimly recognised that it would not be a good idea to get on the wrong side of these girls on her very first day.

Grudgingly, she made her hair bubble-gum pink and short – her mum's favourite - then blue and waist length, back to the medium length reddish gold curls that had been her own preferred style for years now, so much had she always wanted to look like the Weasleys, and made her eyes flash a few different colours as well.

The three girls gazed back at her, mouths open.

"That is _so_ cool!" Marion said fervently, and Hope felt a slight leap of delight. As much as she hated being treated like a freak show, having the ability to impress people with zero effort had its benefits. Maybe Dom and Teddy had been right about finding it easy to make friends.

"Do you want to come down and have breakfast with us?" Elodie asked. "We start lessons later than normal on our first day, my sister said, so that we can be given our timetables and induction information and stuff. So we'll have plenty of time. And we can get to know each other a bit."

Hope smiled but shook her head. "Maybe tomorrow?" she suggested. "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but my friend Dom is in Ravenclaw too, in third year, and I said I'd eat with her this morning."

"Wait. You don't mean Dom _Weasley,_ do you?" Elodie gave a sudden snigger and clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Yes." Hope narrowed her eyes a little. She was starting to dislike Elodie already.

"But…" Elodie lowered her voice to a whisper, even though it was just the four of them in the dormitory. "You _know_ about Dom, right?"

Hope felt a much stronger surge of anger.

"Of course I know her! She's basically my cousin. Her parents are my godparents. And _my_ parents are her godparents."

"Yeah, but…" Elodie waved an impatient hand. "Like… you know _about_ her? You know how she isn't actually a her at all? You know that Dom Weasley is really a _boy_?"

Hope glared at her, all thoughts of avoiding animosity so early on forgotten.

"She's not a boy," she snapped. "You don't have any idea what you're talking about."

Elodie just stared smugly back at her and then turned to the other two, who were looking confused. "My sister told me all about _him_ ," she said, looking pointedly at Hope, whose eyes were emitting sparks. "They're in the same year. _Dominic_ Weasley just decided that he wanted to be a girl, a few months before starting Hogwarts. And Headmistress Vector actually allowed it, and he sleeps in the girls' dormitory and everything. Thankfully Kirstin's in Slytherin so she doesn't have to share a room with him. Mum would have written to complain otherwise. I mean, can you _imagine_?"

Natalie, looking equally appalled and disgusted, murmured her agreement. Marion appeared uncertain, but did not seem willing to disagree with her confident classmates so early on in the year.

Hope, however, couldn't have cared less about that. She was fuming. Dom had already warned her that some people treated her like this, had told Hope that she would hear unpleasant things too, likely as soon as people found out that they were friends. Yes, it was horrible, Dom had said. Yes, sometimes it made her completely miserable. But a lot of the time, she was able to ignore it, and things were OK. She was far happier now than she had been a couple of years ago, and she had finally settled into Hogwarts and was beginning to find her place. The girls who shared her dormitory had accepted her and maintained an amicable relationship with her, even if they weren't the best of friends. Roxanne _was_ her best friend in the world and she and her Slytherin gang always stuck up for her. Most importantly, her whole family had been supportive, even Percy and Audrey, who had surprised everyone shortly before Dom's first year at school by coming over to dinner and bringing her a gift of some very pretty hair slides, identical to ones that Audrey regularly wore, and that Dom had coveted for years.

"You be whoever you want to be, Dom," Percy had told his niece importantly, as Audrey fixed the slides in her red curls for her. "Don't let anyone tell you any different." Despite his pompous tone, which Dom had laughed about with Roxanne and Hope afterwards, she had been surprised and touched by his reaction, having been warned that Percy, although well meaning, was quite old-fashioned in his view of the world and might be a little bit more shocked at the news than the rest of their family.

But all had been well, and with everyone else too, even if her grandparents had initially been a little taken aback. Remus and Tonks had proved to be more suitable godparents to Dom than Bill and Fleur could have imagined when they first asked them, and Dom adored them, so much so that they had been the first people she had spoken to about wanting to attend Hogwarts officially as a girl. Even Victoire, with whom Dom argued all the time, fiercely defended her now sister at every turn, and would not let anyone else speak a word against her. And now Hope would be at school with her as well, and that meant another friendly face, another person to have her back.

"Things might be different if I didn't have such a big family," Dom had shrugged. "But I do, and they're here for me. So everything's OK."

But after hearing Elodie's scathing comments first-hand, Hope had to wonder if things were really as OK as Dom made out. The girl had never even met her friend and yet here she was, making horrid comments and turning other people against her.

"Well, I think _you're_ disgusting," she said sharply. "I take it back. I'm never going to sit and eat breakfast with _you_."

And she turned on her heel and marched out of the dormitory.

_Ok, so maybe it wasn't going to be_ quite _that easy to make friends._

O

The animosity with the three other girls in her dormitory was, admittedly, an unfortunate start to her time at Hogwarts, but within two days, Hope was having far too much fun with the people she did like to bother about the people she didn't.

The first day passed in a blur of getting lost, but then came the weekend. Dom and Roxanne made sure to show her the best ways of getting around, introducing her to secret passageways and hidden corridors, and warning her about the parts of the castle she should avoid. When Monday came, she was already feeling much more at home.

On Monday, they had Defence Against the Dark Arts. Professor Izatt, an older witch with short grey hair, a permanent smile and a firm but cheerful manner, welcomed them into the classroom. Hope liked the look of her immediately.

"Right," she said, after the inevitable introductions. "Defence Against the Dark Arts. Who can tell me why we study Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

There was a silence. Then Michael Longbottom put up his hand. "To prepare us," he said. "To understand what dangers and evil there are in the world and to learn how to fight them, and protect ourselves from dark magic and dark creatures and dark incidents."

"Precisely," Izatt smiled at him. "You can take ten points to Gryffindor for that! That is very well put, as they will be the three main areas of focus in this class. Dark magic. Dark creatures. Dark incidents. Of course, dark magic takes many forms, and as you go through school you will learn counter jinxes and protective curses to repel it. You will study dark creatures, both in theory and in practice. And, as Mr Longbottom has rightly mentioned, you will learn about the history of dark incidents, the evil that has shaped the world we now live in today, in a different context to how it is studied in History of Magic."

She looked round at the class. She really did have a gift for captivating everyone's attention, Hope thought. Everyone was watching her avidly.

"Can anyone tell me some examples of what this might include? What do you think you'll be learning about?"

Several hands went up this time.

"Shield charms?"

"Of course! A defensive spell by its very name."

"Unforgiveable curses."

"Yes," Izatt said, eyeing Cadmus Flint intently. "We do teach you about them, but not until OWL level."

"Hags?" someone said.

"Indeed, they would be a good example of a dark creature."

"Trolls!"

Soon the suggestions of dark creatures were coming thick and fast.

"Grindylows."

"Boggarts."

"Heliopaths!"

"I'm afraid Heliopaths don't exist." Izatt smiled slightly at the girl who had made this suggestion. "Not outside the pages of the Quibbler, anyway."

"Vampires exist though," someone said eagerly.

"Yes, we will study vampires next year."

"And werewolves!" another voice piped up, equally enthusiastically.

Hope tensed. Elodie, she noticed, seated between Marion and Natalie, was whispering something to each of them. Natalie just nodded, but Marion's eyes widened, and she looked round at Hope, immediately going bright red when she saw Hope staring back at her.

_No prizes for guessing what that was about._

Izatt was careful in her response.

"Werewolves _are_ part of the third-year curriculum," she said slowly. "However they are among the rare exceptions to the three categories I just mentioned, as they don't really fall under any of them."

" _I_ don't see why they wouldn't be classed as dark creatures!" Elodie said pointedly, loud enough for most of the class to hear. Hope stared down at her parchment and inked a black line across it, purely to stop her reacting in any other manner. Her movement was so violent that she almost tore the paper.

"Well, that is fair enough." Izatt looked Elodie directly in the eye, her calm tone unchanged. "You are here to learn, after all. But I can tell you exactly why we would not view werewolves as dark creatures."

Elodie had clearly not been expecting this and went rather red too.

"Dark creatures, by definition, are aligned with the Dark Side," Izatt continued. "They therefore would not be capable of fighting _against_ the Dark Arts. They would do a dark wizard's bidding without question, unable to demonstrate morality, courage or compassion, incapable of putting others before themselves. And it would be simply wrong to suggest that this were true of all werewolves, not to mention downright disrespectful to those who _have_ shown bravery or selfless actions, those who may, for example, have fought in the wizarding wars, risking their own life to bring about the peaceful world that we all – including you, Miss Carmichael - enjoy today."

Hope felt a fierce rush of pride as Elodie was put firmly in her place by this speech and glowered down at her desk. Izatt had not so much as looked at Hope, but there could be little doubt who she was talking about. Michael, seated a couple of desks along, grinned as he caught her eye.

"More examples please," said Izatt briskly, driving the conversation towards less sensitive topics. "What about dark events? Can anyone think of incidents that have happened in modern history, examples of what we might be trying to fight?"

A girl in the front put up her hand. "You Know Who wars."

"Of course," the teacher nodded. "Or Lord Voldemort, as we try and give him his proper name now. Possibly the most famous dark events of all."

"Grindelwald!" someone else offered.

"Indeed."

"The rise of Novikov!"

"Yes. Less famous, but equally devastating to those affected in Eastern Europe. Any others? Any more recent events in Britain, for example?"

Hope raised her hand tentatively.

"Yes, Miss Lupin?"

"The Surge?"

"That is an excellent example. Can you tell me what The Surge was?"

Hope screwed up her face, trying to remember what her parents had told her.

"It was a series of attacks, about ten years ago. In and around London. The people responsible were old Voldemort supports, but they'd never been imprisoned because they weren't in his circle and there was no evidence of their crimes. And they were always small attacks, just a few victims at a time, both muggles and magical people. And at first the Ministry didn't realise there was magic involved but then it got worse. And eventually they got caught, after a much bigger attack, and they were stopped. But about fifty people died overall."

"Very good, take ten points for Ravenclaw," Izatt said. "Now," she looked seriously round the class again, "we don't teach you about these things at school to cause panic. We tell you about them because you need to appreciate that the Dark Arts are a constant, ever present, ever evolving threat in our world. It is not something we want you to be frightened about. It is something we want you to _understand_. We are very fortunate to live in peaceful times, but that does not mean that bad things can't happen, and so the fight against the Dark Arts goes on. Can anyone tell me _who_ helps to fight the Dark Arts in the Wizarding World?"

There was an instant flurry of hands.

"The Ministry of Magic!"

"Aurors."

"Azkaban guards."

"The Ministry of Magical Security."

"The Order of the Phoenix!"

"The Order of the Phoenix no longer operates," Izatt said, looking over at Esme Okare, who had offered this latest response. "But you are correct. They were a hugely important organisation in The Great War, and their actions are undoubtedly another reason that some of us, if not many of us, are alive today."

Hope felt another warm glow in her chest, and she and Michael exchanged a second smile. Hope knew he would never say- the Longbottoms were far too modest- but his father had been just as instrumental in the war as her own, despite never having been an official member of the Order. Her parents and Harry had told her that many times.

There were no more volunteers. "Anyone else?" Izatt asked. "There are other, very important people involved in the fight against the Dark Arts. People that none of you have mentioned yet, but who I am sure you know very well indeed.

There was another silence, and then Michael raised his hand again.

"Us?"

" _Correct_ , Mr Longbottom. Us. You. We are all equally important in fighting the Dark Arts, and more than that, we have a responsibility to do so."

"But professor," Natalie piped up. "How are we supposed to fight the Dark Arts now? We don't know any spells yet."

Izatt just eyed her seriously before replying. "Dark incidents throughout the years have all been different," she said. "Yet they all have one thing in common. In all cases, they have been allowed to take hold because of division, unkindness, intolerance and hatred. Because people have taken the easy road, followed old beliefs, stuck with outdated prejudices, even when the evidence suggested that times were moving forward. And that, Miss Dubalski, is something that all of you can start working against today, without the need to pick up your wand at all. We fight those things by being inclusive, and kind, by standing up for the things we believe to be right and by being true to ourselves and respectful of others."

Hope narrowed her eyes and stared sideways at Elodie. Marion caught her pointed look and had the grace to look abashed, but Elodie just smirked.

"Right." Izatt clapped her hands. "Now that we have established that, let's get cracking. Wands out please, and we'll get stuck in."

O

"Izatt is awesome!" Hope said to her friends that evening, meeting them by the lake for some end of the day fresh air.

"I know," Dom said. "She's so kind but so strict at the same time. Doesn't stand for any crap. You should have heard the put down she gave Julie Prat last year. Julie didn't realise that Izatt was in the classroom and she made some comment about what I was wearing… Izatt just squashed her flat. Embarrassed her in front of the whole class, even made her cry, but without even raising her voice or saying anything mean. It was great!"

"What other lessons did you have today?" she added, as Hope grinned to herself, hoping very much that Elodie would soon be suffering another put down.

"Potions." Hope pulled a disgusted face. "Was horrible. I just can't understand how Mum and Teddy liked it so much. I think Leppard was expecting me to be great at it like Teddy. She looked very put out when my potion went all black and sticky. And then I had Transfiguration and History of Magic. _So_ boring - History of Magic I mean. I nearly fell asleep!"

"You'll have a different teacher after third year," Roxanne assured her. "They don't let old Binns teach the important years anymore, too many people were failing their OWL. How was Transfiguration?"

Hope sighed. "It's interesting, but I found it pretty tough."

"Dom can help you, I'm sure. It's her best subject. Me, not so much."

Dom shrugged modestly.

"Tuesday night I have Astronomy and then flying on Wednesday." Hope checked her timetable again. "Flying will be fun!"

"Don't get too excited," Roxanne warned. "The flying is literally just a few weeks and to make sure that you can stay on a broom. You're way more advanced than that already. Although Wood's kind of pretty, so that makes it worth it."

"He's _old_!" Dom reminded her. "Older than your parents!" But Roxanne just laughed. "I know, and Mum and Dad say that Wood's only true love is quidditch, but still. I'm allowed to _look_ at him!"

"When are your trials?"

Dom and Roxanne had both been training hard all summer, helped by Roxanne's brother Fred, and were hoping to make their respective house teams this year.

"End of next week," Dom said. "There are two chaser spots this year, so I'm kind of hopeful."

"You should be!" Hope agreed. "And you Rox, after all your practice and the advice Harry and Charlie gave you."

Roxanne stretched. "I hope so," she yawned. "Morella's going for seeker too, but I reckon I'm better than her."

"So what are the girls in your dormitory like?" Dom turned to Hope. "You haven't said much about them. There's that tiny one with all the hair, Elodie, and the tall one."

"Marion," Hope said. "Marion seems ok...ish. Really not a fan of Elodie and Natalie though!"

"You've known them two minutes!" Roxanne laughed.

Hope felt awkward. "Yeah I know. I just…get a bad feeling about them."

"Why?"

Hope didn't reply, but Dom was looking at her with a resigned sort of expression on her face. "They said stuff about me, didn't they?"

Hope shook her head but didn't speak. Masking her true feelings was one thing, but she was a terrible liar when asked something outright.

"Hope, it's fine. I'm used to it, honestly."

"Well, you shouldn't be used to it!" Hope said in frustration. "They don't even know you and they've already decided they don't like you and it's so, so unfair. You're kinder and prettier and way more intelligent, judging by the inane conversations they have before bed sometimes… You're worth one hundred of any of them so why should they get to be mean about you?"

Roxanne smiled her approval of Hope's words, but Dom just sighed. "That's just the way it is."

"Not if I have any say in the matter."

"You shouldn't be enemies with them," said Dom, after a pause. "They're your dormmates, Hope. It'll make your life pretty difficult if you don't get on."

"I don't care." Hope pulled up a blade of grass and snapped it in two. "You're my friend and I'm not being friends with anyone who says things about you and that's the end of it!"

**oOo**

* * *

_October_

Hope didn't find it too difficult to avoid the girls in her dormitory. Elodie quickly established herself as the ringleader, not just of the Ravenclaw girls, but of half the year group, and so Hope began ignoring them all together. At first, she thought that the Ravenclaw boys weren't so bad, but when Alec Peters loudly catcalled her as she walked down the corridor and asked her why she wasn't a different size and shape, if she could look however she wanted, she refused to have anything to do with them either.

She spent as little time in her dormitory as possible, preferring to stay in the common room with Dom, playing games, sharing snacks or just chatting, mostly about what Ravenclaw's chances would be in the quidditch cup the coming season. Despite her earlier protests that Hope should be friends with the girls in her year, Dom confessed that it was so nice to have a proper friend in her own house.

In lessons, Hope sat with whoever had a spare seat next to them – although she tried to avoid Marion, who seemed to be Elodie's second choice of friend and often ended up sitting alone. Marion didn't seem too bad, admittedly, but Hope just wasn't prepared to associate herself with anyone who would willingly be friends with a little troll like Elodie.

Outside of lessons and their houses, she and Dom spent most of their time with Roxanne's huge circle of Slytherin friends, who were, as Roxanne had promised on the train ride up to Hogwarts, a very nice group of people. Some of them older, most of them built like tanks, and all of whom she had wrapped round her little finger, they came in very handy if anyone started showing the slightest signs of being unkind or unpleasant. Teddy had been right. No one dared mess with the Weasleys, and certainly not Roxanne Weasley, at any rate.

Sometimes, when Dom and Roxanne were busy with quidditch or third year privileges, Hope found herself at a bit of a loose end. She didn't mind her own company too much, and she had Oompa, of course. It was surprising how much friendship a little ball of orange fluff could provide.

_Not the best for conversations though._

Still, Hope tried not to feel dispirited on those occasions where it felt like she didn't have many friends. She'd only been at school a few weeks, after all. No friends was still better than being friends with Elodie and her minions.

O

One Saturday in October, however, Dom and Roxanne having gone into Hogsmeade with promises to bring back a ton of sweets from Honeydukes, Hope was sitting by the lake, half-heartedly flicking through some assigned History of Magic reading, when a cheeky voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Hey pal!"

"Oh hey!" Hope smiled at James, who was looking down at her. Oompa immediately hopped onto his shoe and chewed his laces.

"Where are Dom and Roxanne?" James enquired, reaching down to stroke the pygmy puff.

"Hogsmeade." Hope shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. She certainly didn't want James feeling sorry for her. She had overheard Ginny telling him, just before the start of term, that he was to "look after Hope at school" and she had been most indignant. She did _not_ need to be mollycoddled.

"You can come and sit with us," James said abruptly. "Only if you want to, but we're planning our next prank on Leppard. You might be able to help."

Hope was touched by this. She liked James very much, but she had been under the impression that he wouldn't want her tagging along with him, being older and much more popular than she was. He idolised Teddy, of course, but she was no Teddy, as some people had already been swift to point out. She also had been reluctant to seek James out just because Dom and Roxanne were busy. That would seem rude, in her opinion. But as he had now _invited_ her…

"This is Hope," James said, as they re-joined his group of friends. "Hope this is Matt, Neil and Eoin."

"Another cousin?" Eoin asked, looking at Hope's red curls.

"Pretty much," James nodded. "Not blood relative though. She's _Teddy's_ sister," he added importantly.

Hope smiled politely at their dawning looks of recognition and prepared herself for the usual _Teddy was so awesome_ speech. But Neil was just looking at her as if trying to remember something.

"I saw you down at the quidditch pitch the other week!" he said suddenly. "With Dom Weasley."

"Yes," Hope said, a little surprised. "We were practising for Dom's trials."

"Did she make the team?"

"Yep! Second chaser!"

"Why didn't you try out as well?" Neil enquired. "You were really good!"

"Well, thanks," Hope said, somewhat flattered. "But I'm a first year, remember. Don't stand a chance."

"James's dad did," Matt said at once. "He was Gryffindor seeker in his first year. And he'd never even flown before."

"Yeah…" Hope rolled her eyes. "But James's dad is Harry Potter. And I am no Harry Potter."

"You could probably look like him, if you wanted to," Eoin laughed.

Hope hesitated, but Eoin had not _asked_ her to morph, just made a casual statement. She didn't mind morphing when it was on her own terms, and she knew that she had a knack for imitating people's faces. She immediately forced her features into an approximation of Harry's, scar and all.

"Woah, that is creepy," James shuddered.

"Got to your room! You're grounded!" Hope said to him, still with Harry's face, putting on a deep, gravelly voice. The boys fell about laughing and Hope let the morph fall away.

But she was feeling cheerful as the conversation turned back to the elaborate prank that the boys would be playing in their next potions lesson. Oompa bounced around happily, delighted to have some new friends. Matt in particular seemed very taken with her, and grinned as she nibbled the ends of his fingers.

Maybe it wasn't so difficult to make friends when you found the right people.

**oOo**

* * *

_December_

The weeks sailed by so fast that it was almost a shock when the Christmas countdown began. A few days before the end of term, Hope was in the dormitory packing for the holidays. She loathed packing, and would normally have left it until the very last minute, but she needed a distraction right now.

The sky outside was clear, the moon a perfect silver orb. She couldn't help glancing up at it every few minutes, her heart in her mouth. The mid-winter full moon. Always a worry. Teddy had written to her first thing after the Halloween full moon to assure her that their father was fine, and had promised to do the same tomorrow. Dad had been going through this for years and years, he'd reminded her. Yes, the Halloween and mid-winter moons tended to be worse than others, but he was tough, he knew the drill, and he could handle it.

Hope did know this.

It did not stop her worrying.

"It's so beautiful," Marion muttered from behind her. She had entered the dormitory, thankfully without the other two girls, and was now staring out of the window as well.

Hope did not react to this. She supposed that the full moon must look beautiful to some people, maybe even to most people. But to her and her family, it represented nothing but pain and illness, sadness and separation, worry and dread.

Marion seemed to have correctly interpreted her lack of reaction and looked suddenly very awkward.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I didn't mean…I didn't think."

Hope just shrugged. "It's alright," she said, with an effort. "Most people don't have to think about it. But for us…for our family…it can't be anything other than something horrible. Something to worry about. Dread, even."

"Is– is it not less of a worry when you're at school?"

Hope turned to face her.

" _What_?"

Marion faltered at the look on her face. "I- I just- I just meant… I mean, I know your mum and your brother are still at home, but…"

Hope immediately knew what she was getting at and tried to repress the surge of anger that had bubbled up inside her. It wasn't Marion's fault, she tried to tell herself. Marion was Muggle-born, she knew, therefore had known nothing of the magical world until receiving her letter just a few short months ago. Werewolves would have been mere legend and fairy-tale to her before then. And Marion was friends with Elodie, who had no doubt been filling her head with outright lies for the past few months.

"I suppose Elodie's been telling you how terrible and evil werewolves are." She was unable to keep the coldness from her voice. "How they are bloodthirsty monsters, maybe? How they are a danger to everyone around them? How afraid and frightened they make people, even their own friends and family?"

Marion went red at this but did not deny it.

Hope focused very hard on shoving some clothes into her little suitcase.

"Well, my dad isn't like that," she said, her voice shaking slightly with suppressed anger. "In fact, most werewolves aren't like that at all. Most of them just want nothing more than to live a normal life. They didn't _ask_ to be bitten and to have their lives damaged forever, or to be treated like scum for something that isn't their fault. They don't want to have to spend a night – sometimes two nights - of every single month locked in a room on their own because there is no permanent cure and they are scared of hurting the people they love. They don't _like_ drinking disgusting potion for days to make sure they are safe on the night of the full moon. And that's all it does." She threw several balled-up socks viciously on top of her leggings. "Seven days of every month taking potion and all it does is stop him being dangerous to himself and others. But he still transforms. He's still in pain and he still gets ill. And people – people think I'm scared _of_ him, or worried about him hurting _us_?" She glared at the other girl. "The only person I'm scared for is him. And the only person who has ever been hurt is himself. Even before the Wolfsbane potion got discovered."

Hope had not quite meant to say all that. She was breathing heavily. Marion was just staring at her. "I – I didn't know," she said at last.

"Well now you do."

Hope was a little mollified by the guilty and apologetic look on Marion's face, but neither of them said another word. Hope, unusually, was the first to go to bed that night, tossing and turning, as she often did on the night of the full moon, unable to sleep, praying that everything would be fine and that her dad was not suffering too much.

O

It was a relief, just a few days later, to see him at King's Cross station, looking just as he always did, his face lined and his hair almost completely grey, but otherwise with a healthy amount of colour in his cheeks and smiling broadly as he greeted both her and Dom, who he was dropping off at Shell Cottage on the way home.

"Where's Victoire?" he asked, as Hope gave him a second hug, unable to contain her relief that he was OK, despite having been assured by Teddy a couple of days ago that this was the case.

"Probably fixing her hair," Dom snorted. "We could just go without her," she added hopefully, and Remus chuckled. Hope knew that Dom was joking. She and Victoire loved each other really, underneath all the outward animosity.

In any case, Victoire was now hurrying towards them. Hope, looking around, suddenly saw Marion, who was standing a couple of metres away with a slim woman who was presumably her own mother. Marion's eyes were on Remus as Victoire, beaming, threw her arms around him and then gave him a kiss on each cheek, as was her recently adopted way of greeting people. Dom just rolled her eyes at her sister's exaggerated _French-ness,_ while Hope stared boldly back at Marion, silently daring her to continue her thought process from the other night. But the other girl just gave a small smile and a tiny wave.

"Friend of yours?" Remus enquired, following her gaze.

"Nah," Hope said. "Not really."

But she waved back at Marion all the same. Maybe she wasn't that bad after all.

O

As much as she had enjoyed her first term, it was lovely to be back home, to see her parents and Teddy and Gran, to come back to her bedroom where she could have her own space and not have to share it with horrible, spiteful girls.

Shortly after their return home, Teddy came into the kitchen, holding a letter.

"I've got something to tell you," he said, sitting down and looking round at them. He held out the letter. "I've been accepted. For the St Mungo's Specific Research Programme."

"Oh Teddy, that's wonderful!" Tonks immediately sprang to her feet and gave him a hug, all exhaustion from her long day at work forgotten.

"What is the St Mungo's Specific Research Programme?" Hope enquired.

"It's for specific research projects."

"Well, yeah, I figured that much on my own, thanks..."

Teddy smiled.

"Basically, you submit a proposal for research into a particular illness or affliction, and if they like it and think it is worth supporting then St Mungo's provides the funding and resources for it, for as long as you need. And I get a basic salary as well."

Hope did not need to ask what Teddy's proposal had been. Remus, having read the letter, was also smiling, but Teddy was looking anxious.

"I know you weren't sure about this, Dad."

He held up a hand.

"Teddy, if this is what you want to do, then of course I'm sure. I just wanted to make sure that _you_ were sure. That you were doing it for the right reasons, and that you weren't going to spend your life desperately hoping for something that might not even be possible."

"I am sure," Teddy said firmly. "And I'm realistic. But that doesn't mean I can't try, Dad. The way I want to approach it has a good chance of working. I'm sure it does!"

"Then I could not be prouder or more delighted. And St Mungo's will be lucky to have you."

"Nerd!" Hope looked cheekily up at him, picking the icing off her slice of Christmas cake and eating it whole.

"You were the one sorted into Ravenclaw!"

"You're still the nerd!" Hope snorted. Ravenclaw she might be, but she didn't think _she_ would be getting ten Outstanding OWLs and seven Outstanding NEWTs somehow. "Ok, can we decorate the tree now?" She jumped up, still chewing the mouthful of sticky sugar, and brushed the crumbs off her lap.

"But we already did it," Remus said solemnly. "We didn't think you would want to help this year."

Hope's dismay was quashed by the sight of Teddy's laughing face.

"Everything's laid out ready," he assured her. "We would never do it without you."

O

"So, come on! Tell us about your first term," Tonks grinned. "Your Dad says you wouldn't stop talking about it on the ride home and I haven't heard a word! Have you talked yourself hoarse?"

Hope was curled up on a beanbag by the newly decorated Christmas tree, full of chocolate pudding. She yawned widely.

"I'm just sleepy," she mumbled. "But it was great."

"What's Ravenclaw tower like?" Teddy enquired.

She shrugged. "It's nice. The dormitories are really big and we can see for miles out of the windows, and the common room's cool, this massive room with all these little alcoves and it has a reading room too, with individual study booths for if people want to work in peace and quiet."

"It doesn't seem like you've spent much time in there yourself." Remus raised an eyebrow.

She just laughed. "Nah, not really. I'm not behind on work though, honest!"

"Oh Neville says hi!" she added. "I saw him at Hogsmeade station. He says Merry Christmas and he hopes to see you in the holidays!"

"I'm sure we will," Remus said. "How's Michael doing? Do you have many classes with him?"

"Not many. Just Defence Against the Dark Arts and Herbology. He's really good at them both! Top of the class."

"I doubt Neville would have it any other way."

"I don't really see much of him other than that though," Hope said, yawning again. "There are loads of Gryffindors this year and they all hang out in a massive group together and mostly in their common room."

"What about the people in your house?" Tonks asked. "What are the girls in your dormitory like? You didn't say much about them in your letters."

Hope wrinkled her nose. "That's because they're horrible! OK, Marion doesn't seem so bad, but she's friends with Natalie and Elodie and they _are_ horrible. Really bitchy."

"Language," her mum sighed, while Remus and Andromeda looked a little concerned.

"I don't care though!" she hastened to assure them. "I stick with Dom and Roxanne and their friends mostly. And James sometimes. They're my favourite people anyway, so I don't care if the girls don't like me."

"I suppose," Tonks said cautiously. "But it might be a good idea to make some friends your own age, Hope. Dom and Roxanne will leave school before you do, remember. As will James."

But Hope just shrugged. "I'll be fine," she said airily. "No way am I being friends with Elodie, anyway. She says horrible things about Dom. And Dad."

Tonks shot a glance at Remus, but neither of them said anything more. Her dad might brush off things being said about _him_ , but Hope knew that none of her family would ever expect her to befriend someone who had been mean about one of their own, not when kindness and respect were virtues that had been impressed upon her for as long as she could remember.

**oOo**

* * *

_January_

All the same, Hope did make a bit more effort after Christmas. Her mother took her aside and spoke seriously to her a few days before going back.

"You don't have to be friends with Elodie," she said. "I can't condone anyone being unkind about one of our friends, least of all Dom, so of course you must stand up for her. But try not to create too much animosity if you can help it, love, and I really do thing it would be a good idea to have friends in your year. I didn't get on with a lot of the girls in my house, when I was at school. It could be difficult at times! At least be amicable."

_Amicable. That shouldn't be too difficult, should it?_

So, on the first day back, finding herself alone with Marion in the dormitory, Hope decided it was time to make an effort.

"How was your Christmas?"

Marion looked a little surprise but replied without hesitation.

"Pretty good thanks! Quiet – it was just us and my grandparents. My mum loves Christmas though, so she goes all out."

"So does mine! Dad, not quite so much – but he joins in the fun in the end. We don't give him much choice."

"Was – was he OK? Your dad I mean?"

Hope recognised this as an olive branch and a sign that Marion still felt guilty about their conversation before the break.

"Yes," she said. "The full moon was nowhere near, obviously, and he's just the same as anyone else the rest of the time.

Marion nodded, but her eyes had flicked over to a photo frame that stood on Hope's bedside table. Her favourite picture of all, which showed her dancing with her dad at Percy and Audrey's wedding, as he held one of her hands and twirled her round and round to a fast paced Irish jig. Her seven-year-old self in the picture laughed in delight, her red curls flying round her face. Hope could still remember the feeling of intense dizziness as the song came to an end and she staggered around and tripped herself up, Remus catching her with a well practiced arm seconds before she hit the floor.

"I saw you guys at the station," Marion blurted out suddenly. "I didn't realise that was your dad…before. I didn't – I didn't know they were just normal people. Werewolves, I mean. Elodie never said…" She was looking very uncomfortable, her eyes large. "And it was your dad, wasn't it, that Izatt was talking about in our first lesson, who fought in the war and everything? One of the boys told me on the train home. But I - I didn't know. I would never have-"

"It's OK," Hope cut gently over her as she rambled on. "Honestly. I know you weren't to know."

There was another slightly awkward pause. Hope just shrugged and resumed the topic of their holidays. "So do muggles have different Christmas traditions to us?"

"Um…I don't really know," Marion said. "I don't know what wizards do at Christmas. I didn't... like to ask…" she trailed off, but Hope understood. She knew that Elodie was quite disdainful of Muggle-borns, although she never said this quite so bluntly. Blood prejudice was heavily penalised at Hogwarts, and Elodie tried to stay within the rules whenever possible, but she surely must make Marion feel uncomfortable at times with her snobbish attitude. Some friend she was, Hope thought acidly.

"Well, we have a tree," she said. "That's my favourite part - decorating it. And we have Christmas songs. Teddy's obsessed with Muggle music, so actually we probably listen to the same songs you do. And we have roast dinner, and crackers and lots of chocolate. And presents. And then we see other family too and play loads of games."

Marion was smiling. "That sounds pretty much like mine!"

"Oh and we have indoor fireworks - Roxanne's Dad makes these amazing ones that fill the whole room and we set them off on Christmas Eve!"

"Ok, well we don't have that!" Marion laughed.

Hope grinned back. Then they heard the unmistakable sound of Elodie and Natalie clattering up the stairs.

"Hey Marion, look at this!" Natalie shoved a magazine in her friend's face as she came in, but Elodie just threw Hope a look of disdain.

"What do you want, _Hopeless_?"

"What a clever nickname," Hope said coolly. "Did you come up with it all by yourself?"

Marion looked embarrassed but Hope just stuck a finger up at Elodie without waiting for further retort, and left the dormitory to go and find Dom. She was clearly never going to get along with Elodie, but at least she had just had a nice, pleasant conversation with Marion.

_Amicable_.

Just as Mum had requested.

_How hard could it be?_

**OOO**


	3. Nemesis

* * *

**NEMESIS**

_Retribution_

* * *

_February_

The much-anticipated Ravenclaw versus Slytherin match was just a few weeks into the new term, and Hope was looking forward to watching it, although a little sad that she would have neither Dom or Roxanne to sit with and comment on the match as she had with previous ones. Few people understood quidditch like the Weasleys.

"Who are you supporting?" she asked James, as he swung by their table at breakfast to wish Dom luck.

"Ravenclaw of course!"

"And you'll just tell Rox that you're supporting Slytherin if you see her?" Dom grinned.

"You can't support Slytherin when you're in Gryffindor!" James looked quite appalled. "Are you sitting with us for the match, Hope? We're going down now, to get good seats, if you want to come."

About to say yes, Hope hesitated. She glanced over to where her fellow house members sat in a huddle, Elodie, as always, taking centre stage while everyone laughed along to what she was saying. Marion was there too, of course, but sitting a little apart from them and looking rather forlorn.

"I'm going to sit with my house," she said at last. "Thanks though. It's nothing personal, I'm just seeing if I can get on better with them this term."

James raised his eyebrows.

"Like a New Year's resolution?"

"Sort of."

"OK," James shrugged. "See ya. Wouldn't wanna be ya!" And he was gone.

"Are you really going to sit with Elodie?" Dom looked a little put out.

"Not Elodie!" Hope said at once. "But Marion's been OK recently. I've been talking to her quite a bit and sitting with her in lessons. She's nothing like the other two."

Dom nodded. "Fair enough. I'd better go."

"Good luck!"

Hope sighed as Dom left the Great Hall with the rest of the Ravenclaw team. Time to make an effort.

"Do you want to go down to the match and get good seats?" she said to Marion, approaching their end of the table and trying to ignore Elodie, who had just whispered something to Natalie. The two of them burst into fits of giggles.

_Make an effort. Make an effort. Resit urge to punch Elodie's teeth in._

"Yeah," Marion said, her face brightening. "Shall we go down now?"

The rest of the Ravenclaws started making their way out into the grounds as well. Marion chattered away to Hope all the way down to the pitch about her new found love of quidditch, and the two girls chose seats at the front of the stands in the middle of the pitch. Elodie, looking very unimpressed, took a seat behind them, next to Natalie, and the two of them started making snide remarks about Hope's hair, which she had changed to bright blue in support of their house.

_I guess being a metamorphmagus isn't so 'awesome' now then._

But she tried to take a leaf out of Dom's book and ignore them, turning back to Marion and resuming their discussion about Ravenclaw's chances in the match.

It was an exciting game. Goals were scored on either end and although Ravenclaw maintained a steady lead, Hope knew that it could go either way. Both teams were exceptionally quick this year, and the players resembled green and blue blurs shooting up and down the pitch. This not only resulted in a lot of goals, but made the seekers' job considerably harder, as the snitch was even harder to spot than usual.

"Who's the better seeker do you think?" Marion asked, about an hour into the game.

"Roxanne," Hope said at once. "And I'm not just saying that because she's my friend. See how agile she is, and how she maintains her speed the whole time? Dan's good, but his average flying speed is much slower, so if Roxanne spots the snitch before him he'll be at an immediate disadvantage because of the acceleration time he'll need to start catching up with her."

"You know so much about it!"

Hope just shrugged. "My extended family practically breathes quidditch," she laughed. "All the Weasleys have at least one parent who was on the team at school, and James's parents both - oof!" She broke off as Cal Burchess, their fifth-year chaser, got knocked of his broom by a well-aimed bludger. "That'll hurt us," she said, as the school medi-volunteers rushed onto the pitch to see if he was ok. The game didn't stop, of course. "He's our best scorer."

"Dom's doing well though!" Marion said. "She's so quick."

Hope noted Marion's use of she without comment. Elodie and Natalie, to her intense fury, never saw fit to do this themselves.

Cal was back on his broom within ten minutes, to huge applause from the Ravenclaw supporters, but Slytherin had managed to score thirty points in the time he had been out, and Hope could already feel the shift in the game. Ravenclaw were losing momentum while Slytherin were gaining ground.

Then, ten minutes later, a huge cheer went up from the sea of green in the stands as Roxanne, flat against the handle of her broom, went into a spectacular dive towards a tiny speck of gold that was glimmering near the grass in the very centre of the pitch. Hope groaned. Dan Collins, as she had predicted, was all the way up the far end of the pitch and flying too slowly to be any kind of threat. Ravenclaw, only forty points ahead now, didn't have a chance.

O

"It was a great game!" Hope assured her friend for the hundredth time, as they sat by the fire that evening.

"Ah it wasn't so bad, I suppose," Dom said. "But we'll be out of the running for the cup, after losing to Hufflepuff aswell. It'll be between them and Slytherin now."

"You and Cal worked great together though! Better than with Henry, he always just goes for the goals on his own without passing."

"Well, Henry's leaving next year," Dom said. "Then there'll be a spot for you! I mean it about training you up over the summer, Hope. I'd love you to be on the team."

Hope tried not to get too excited. Chasing was the most sought-after position of all and with Cal and Dom still at school for several more years, that would leave only one chance for her to be on the team for a long while.

"How was sitting with Elodie?" Dom blurted out suddenly. Hope wondered if she had been working up the courage to ask that question.

"I wasn't sitting with Elodie!" she protested. "I sat with Marion, and Elodie was just near us, that's all."

Dom did not reply.

"Dom, you _know_ I could never be friends with Elodie."

"I know! I know!"

But Dom's face told a different story. Hope thought of Elodie's behaviour over the past few months, snide remarks and pointed comments that Dom had so casually brushed off, saying that she didn't care, insisting that she was fine and that it was easy for her to ignore them. Clearly, she did care. Not that Hope could blame her. _She_ would not have been able to ignore being treated like that.

There was an awkward pause.

"I'm kind of tired, and it's late. I might just go up to bed."

"OK," Hope said in a small voice, stealing a glance at the clock on the wall. It was not late at all. "See you tomorrow."

Hope was deep in thought on her way back up to her own dormitory. It had been nice, in a way, getting on with Marion, feeling like she was finally making a new friend. But Dom clearly didn't like it. Maybe she was worried that Hope would go off with Marion permanently, or even Elodie, or just that she wouldn't want to be her friend anymore. Which was rubbish of course, but she might still think it. Whatever the reason, Hope's new friendship – if you could call it that - was clearly making Dom sad. And Hope would happily have made enemies with everyone in her year if it stopped Dom being sad.

_Surely_ there was a way to get on with her classmates and still be best friends with Dom?

But as she reached the door of the dormitory, she could hear Elodie's voice drifting through it loud and clear, and it stopped her in her tracks.

"…not _actually_ going to keep hanging out with her, are you?"

"She's OK, Elodie." It was Marion speaking. "She's kind of cool, actually."

"Cool?" Elodie was sneering. "She isn't cool. Teddy was cool. Her brother. Cool and clever and popular and everyone loved him. Hope is just a hopeless loser!"

Hope's heartrate accelerated. She wondered how often Elodie talked about her like this. She wasn't often back at the dormitory this early in the evening. Maybe they bitched about her every night before she came up to bed.

"Everyone thinks so," Elodie went on. "They think she's stuck up because she doesn't ever spend time with the rest of us, not unless all her so called friends are busy, anyway. And they think she's a freak, like Dom. Ugly too, which is ironic really…given that she could be the prettiest girl in the school if she wanted to be. And she's so thick – why the hat put her in Ravenclaw, I have no idea."

Hope clenched her fists. She couldn't really be surprised, could she? It was no secret that Elodie detested her. And what she was saying might well be rubbish. It was true that she didn't make much of an effort with the others in her year, but one else had shown any sign that they actively disliked her. She _wasn't_ thick; the hat might not have wanted to put her in Ravenclaw, but it had conceded that she had brains. As for being ugly – well, she knew she was no supermodel, but she was fairly sure she didn't look too bad, with her bright eyes and heart shaped face and vibrant hair. It was better than having a squashed little button for a head anyway, she thought viciously, thinking of Elodie's smug features.

Nevertheless, Elodie had managed to touch on a sore point.

_Teddy was cool. Hope is just a hopeless loser._

Teddy had said that people were unlikely to be mean to her at school. But Teddy, as Elodie had just pointed out, had been cool, admired by everyone, clever, top of his year, and popular, with his huge circle of friends who he was still in touch with now. Whether Elodie's other words were true or not, the fact remained that Hope had not made any real friends since starting school. As much as she adored the Weasleys, they could hardly be testament to her ability to forge meaningful relationships, given that she had known them her entire life. And Marion, by the sounds of it, was not about to continue defending her.

"So what's it to be?" Elodie continued, her tone very hard. "You can be friends with us and everyone else and hang out whenever you want. Or you can go off with Hopeless the loser and Dom the freak and none of us will bother with you at all anymore?"

Hope knew from the silence what the girl's decision would be. Could she even blame her? Elodie had half the year wrapped around her little finger. A few simple words to the rest of her gang and Marion's life could be made extremely unpleasant. Marion didn't have a handful of surrogate cousins to turn to if that happened and had no way of knowing that Hope and Dom would happily welcome her friendship if she wanted it.

_Which she probably doesn't. You're a loser, remember._

"I thought so." There was satisfaction in Elodie's voice, the confirmation that Hope hadn't needed to hear.

Hope waited until their conversation had turned to something else before entering the dormitory. Natalie just ignored her as she came in, but Elodie looked sharply at Marion, who appeared very embarrassed and didn't return Hope's attempt at a smile.

Hope sighed internally.

_Well that solves one problem at least._

She battled with herself. She had an overwhelming desire to stomp up to Elodie, grab her hair and pull it very hard. Rushing in and being impulsive was the Gryffindor way, of course, and Hope wasn't a Gryffindor. She could probably find a better means of payback if she sat down and thought about it for a bit.

That being said, some Gryffindor involvement wouldn't go amiss, and Hope knew plenty of people who might be willing to partake in a bit of mischief.

"James." Hope sought her friend out at breakfast the next day. "I need you to help me with something important."

O

"Right," James said, opening the brightly coloured box that sat in front of him. "This is the largest collection of Wheeze joke sweets you'll find anywhere. I've been collecting them for years. Some of them are discontinued!"

"So what you got?" Dom enquired, her eyes bright. Hope had gone to her two friends after speaking to James and told them that she wanted to pay Elodie back for being horrible to Marion and asked if they wanted to help. It was partly revenge for Dom herself, of course, but Hope was pretty sure Dom would have objected to anything being done on her behalf. As it was, both she and Roxanne had eagerly agreed to be involved.

"Canary creams – turn you into a canary, duck donuts - turn you into a duck, chicken chocolate - well you get the idea…It's very temporary though. Would get a couple of laughs, nothing more. Ton Tongue Toffees – but I really wouldn't advise. Uncle George isn't allowed to sell them anymore – they were a choking hazard. All the usual skiving ones; puking pastilles, fainting fancies, sneezing snaps... but they are so well known by now that they get kind of boring. I've got pimple pills, you can probably figure out what they do-"

"That wouldn't be too bad," Hope mused. "She's obsessed with her skin - spends half her life looking in the mirror."

"They don't last very long though," James said. "Wart walnuts would be better, they make massive scabby things that last for days, but I don't have any of them right now, unfortunately. Used them on Matt Gibson for being a noob."

"Aren't these just muggle cough sweets?" Dom enquired, pulling out a box of lozenges entitled _Tunes_. "Lea in my dormitory uses them when she has a sore throat."

"The muggle version may just be a cough sweet," James nodded. "The Weasley version will cause you to sing every word you speak for several hours."

"Knowing Elodie she's probably got an amazing singing voice," Hope muttered gloomily, casting them aside. "Cartwheeling candies?"

"Turn you into a fully-fledged acrobat for an hour or so. Not the most ideal of pranks either, unfortunately, if you want to take Elodie down a peg; the effects are pretty impressive. Would even cure your five left feet, Hope."

Hope just rolled her eyes at the usual clumsiness jibe and pulled out a pack of squishy blue jellies with some kind of syrup filling. "What about these?"

"They are quite brutal," James said, an evil gleam in his eye. "Unleash about a gallon of water into your system, giving you an unbearable urge to go to the bathroom until you've got rid of it all. I gave one to Al on a car journey once. Mum was fuming – we had to stop every ten minutes."

"Sounds great," Roxanne grinned. "Give it to her in potions. Leppard never lets people out, and certainly wouldn't more than once."

Dom, however, was looking highly uncomfortable. "Not that," she said quietly.

"Oh come on, she would totally deserve it!" But Dom just shivered slightly. "It's the worst feeling in the world," she said, looking quite upset. "It wouldn't even be funny. _Please_ let's do something else."

Hope did not protest further. The purpose of this was certainly not to make Dom feel uncomfortable.

"Hair loss humbugs?" James suggested. "Do what they say on the tin."

"That's a good one too," Roxanne said. "She's obsessed with her damn hair. Always curling it round her wand. Oooh," she pulled out something entitled _Gum-Gums_ – the packet held a picture of a grinning, toothless boy. "I remember Dad telling me about these! They make your teeth fall out, right?"

"Yep!" James grinned. "They grow back, of course. But not for a day or so. Would give her a fright!"

"Hmm I like that," Hope agreed. "What are these?" She held up some tiny brown tablets.

James looked at them thoughtfully. "Self-Stinkers," he said.

"Excuse me?"

"Self-Stinkers. They're discontinued too, didn't sell very well apparently. But basically you dissolve it in your drink and after you've drunk it, you smell terrible, like _really_ awful, for a day or so. But only to yourself."

"What's the point in that?"

"Well, I've never really seen it," James admitted. "Definitely not something I use a lot. I did try one once myself though, it is really bad – like a mix of rotten eggs and dog poo and vomit. I was paranoid all day."

Hope looked unimpressed but Roxanne was grinning.

"What?"

"Oh come _on_ , you guys are such Gryffindors," she sighed. "And you're being too Hufflepuff," she added to Dom. "Think _Slytherin_. Something that will make Princess "I'm so perfect and I want everyone to love me" think that she smells like rotten eggs and vomit and dog poo? It's _exactly_ what we need!"

O

By breaktime the next day, Hope had to admit that Roxanne was right.

James, invisible, had slipped the tiny tablet in her drink over breakfast, before handing his cloak over to Dom, who would execute the final part of the prank later that day. By their ten o'clock potions class, Hope could tell that it was working. Elodie kept surreptitiously sniffing her clothes and looking around anxiously.

"Can you smell something?" Hope heard her mutter to Natalie.

"Smell what?" Natalie looked genuinely confused. Marion also shrugged.

"Never mind."

Elodie was so distracted by the new, mysterious smell that she completely messed up her Throat Soothing Solution, and it bubbled all the way over the top of her cauldron and caused a sticky, wax-like substance to spill onto the workstation. Professor Leppard was most unimpressed.

"I really expect better than this, Miss Carmichael," she sighed. "This is one of the simplest potions in the syllabus. You clearly weren't paying any attention to what I was saying. You will do a detention at the weekend."

Hope tried to hide her smirk as Elodie glared. Elodie might be a scheming cow but she knew how to stay on the right side of the teachers most of the time, and to Hope's knowledge this was her first detention of the year. Hope herself was into double figures by now.

Elodie was still trying to sniff at her robes without anyone else noticing as they joined the throngs of students heading out for break. As they got up to the entrance hall, Morella Flint, one of Roxanne's friends, appeared just behind Elodie with her younger brother Cadmus. "Urgh, can you smell that?" she asked Cadmus suddenly.

"Yeah!" He pulled a face. "Like vomit or something."

"Can you smell it Rox?"

"No," Roxanne said innocently. "Can't smell a thing!"

Elodie quickened her pace.

"OK, you were right," Hope laughed, hanging back to talk to Roxanne as Cadmus and Morella continued to follow Elodie, discussing the new smell in loud, carrying voices. "She's totally paranoid. How did you get Morella involved?"

"Are you kidding?" Roxanne said. "Morella _loathes_ Kirstin. Even more than I do. Wasn't hard to get her involved in pulling a prank on her sister."

Elodie became more and more twitchy as the day wore on. James, of course, was a great asset.

"Phwoahhh," he exclaimed to his friends, as Elodie passed by their table in the Great Hall at lunch. "What's that _smell_? Because it wasn't me this time!" This comment was enough to provoke loud guffaws from Matt, Neil and Eoin. Elodie was scarlet in the face as she strode past and sat down at the Ravenclaw table.

"What's wrong with you?" Natalie said to her in bewilderment. "You're acting so weird!"

Elodie seemed to battle with herself for a while, but she did not say anything in the end.

Hope and Dom, seated a few places down, exchanged a grin but did not otherwise react. They had already decided that they should keep out of it for the moment. Too much Weasley involvement would undoubtedly arouse suspicion.

Elodie was nowhere to be seen for the rest of the lunch break and entered Transfiguration class just after the bell.

"Where on earth have you been?" Natalie enquired.

"I had a shower?"

"A _shower_?"

Hope strained her ears. She couldn't hear exactly what the two girls were saying, but it seemed that Elodie was asking Natalie if she could smell anything. Natalie, completely bewildered, of course, was patiently telling her that she could smell nothing at all. No, not on Elodie's clothes. Nor in her hair. Nor on her breath.

That evening, Hope was sitting reading in the common room, trying to keep her face impassive as bits of Elodie and Natalie's conversation floated over to her.

"Elodie, for the last time, you don't smell," Natalie was saying. "It must be in your head. Maybe you breathed something in in potions."

"You would tell me, wouldn't you?"

"Yes!"

"And you?" Elodie rounded on Marion, who nodded obediently.

At that moment, Dom appeared next to Hope and winked at her.

"Done it," she muttered out of the corner of her mouth. "Should work in a couple of minutes."

Sure enough, two minutes later, a truly awful, rotten smell started creeping round the common room. Roxanne had gone to Fred the day before and innocently asked him if he could modify the smell of a regular stink pellet, carefully describing the stench that James had told them about. Fred had been more than a little suspicious, but had consented to perform the NEWT level spell without question. He tended to adopt the principle of _ignorance is bliss_ when it came to his rebellious younger sister.

The modified stink pellet, which Dom had carefully placed in Elodie's cloak hood while under James's invisibility cloak, was now doing its job. People all around them were wrinkling their noses and coughing slightly, looking over towards Elodie.

Natalie shot Marion an awkward look.

"You can smell it now, can't you?" Elodie said at once, spotting their expressions. "I told you!"

"Elodie, I don't think it's _you_ -"

At that precise moment, Alec Peters walked past.

"Wow!" he said, raising his eyebrows at Elodie. "Was that you? Maybe we should call you _Smell_ odie from now on!"

Elodie immediately jumped up and headed upstairs for her fourth shower of the day, her face scarlet. She did not come down all evening.

Hope and Dom were both doubled over with silent laughter and Natalie glared over at them suspiciously. Marion, however, avoided Hope's eye. They had not spoken at all since the day of the quidditch match and Marion was clearly taking care to avoid being left alone with her. Hope had considered, a couple of times now, going right up to her, Elodie or no Elodie, and bluntly telling her that she was more than welcome to come and spend time with her and Dom. But the subject felt so forced and wrong, and she just couldn't work out how to broach it properly. And anyway…maybe Marion didn't _want_ to be friends with her if it meant not being friends with the other two. She and Natalie seemed to get on pretty well, and Teddy had already told Hope that a lot of people felt quite apart from the Weasleys. She didn't want to make Marion even more uncomfortable than she appeared to be currently.

She and Dom stayed downstairs for a while, whispering about the success of the prank, and as usual, Hope was the last to come up to the dormitory. Elodie was sitting up in bed, scowling down at a book.

"It was you, wasn't it?" she snapped, glaring at Hope as she entered the dormitory. "I found that horrible pellet thing in my robes. I know it was you!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hope said. "Anyway, I haven't been near you all day, remember?"

"Liar," Elodie spat. "Natalie told me you and Domfreak were laughing after I left."

"Hard as it is to believe, we have amusing things to talk about that don't concern _you_ , _Smellodie_ ," Hope said.

She felt a deep sense of triumph as Elodie went red at the mere mention of the name.

"Was it you?" Marion muttered to her, a little later on, when Elodie and Natalie were in the bathroom cleaning their teeth.

Hope hesitated for a second, considering letting Marion in on the joke. Maybe she would find it funny. Maybe it would be a chance to salvage a proper friendship. Perhaps Marion would realise that Hope and the Weasleys really weren't so bad and ditch Elodie and come and be friends with them.

Or maybe Marion would _tell_ Elodie and things would get even more awkward. Hope really didn't know how "amicable" should be handled in this situation.

"Nope," she replied coolly. "Why would I bother with any of you?"

And she turned her back on Marion and started getting ready for bed.

_OK, well I'm pretty certain that_ _it shouldn't be handled like_ that _._

Hope resolutely ignored the little voice in her head, and drifted off to sleep with ease that night, grinning to herself slightly whenever she thought of Alec Peters saying _Smellodie_ , and the look that had appeared on Elodie's face.

"OK, that was funny," Hope admitted to Dom and Roxanne, the next day. It had taken nearly an hour for Natalie and Marion to persuade their friend that she really didn't smell of anything and should come down for the day as normal. "I don't feel we embarrassed her enough, though."

"I don't know... I reckon she'll be cringing whenever she thinks of it," Dom said with satisfaction. "Rox was right, she hates to be seen as anything other than perfect."

"I guess," Hope agreed. "Everyone else will forget it though. Probably already have."

"Well, we've still got the Hair loss Humbugs and the Gum-Gums!" Dom laughed. "Lets give it a few weeks though. Maybe after Easter."

**oOo**

* * *

_April_

Easter was a fairly quiet affair for Hope, as her parents were very busy at work, and Dom, Roxanne and James were all on holiday with their respective families, Dom in France with Aunt Gabrielle, the Potters in Romania to see Charlie and Alex, and Roxanne's family in New York, to visit one of George and Angelina's old school friends. Teddy, however, after a very intense first few months at St Mungo's, now had a few days off.

"So how's it all going?" Hope enquired, as they sat in the garden one warm, spring day, a mountain of Easter eggs on the table in front of them. Hope was well aware that she was probably too old for Easter Egg hunts now, but Teddy had been doing one for as long as she could remember, and she just wasn't prepared to give the tradition up. She had found them all in record time that year as well!

Teddy chewed a toffee egg and nodded.

"It's good. Been a real baptism of fire and quite nerve wracking. But it's a really good programme. You get the resources and the support that you need, and someone to advise if necessary, but it's really up to you how you manage the research. I'm starting to get my head round it all, how I'm going to proceed and everything."

He paused to take another bite of his egg, and then said, a little bitterly, "This programme has been running fifteen years, and I'm the first person to specialise in Lycanthropy."

Hope stared at him.

"Seriously?"

"Yep. I mean, in a way, that could be seen as a positive thing. It means that the lack of cure to date isn't because people have been trying for years and not been able to find one. It's just because no one's looked in the right place."

_Small comfort._

"But _why_ haven't they been trying? It's hardly a new problem, is it? Why wouldn't people do it – for the money if for no other reason?"

Teddy sighed.

"It's not worth people's while to do it for the money," he said. "Just look at Damocles Belby. It took him eight years to invent the Wolfsbane potion, and although nowadays he earns about a thousand galleons a week from that invention, he didn't see a knut of that until it was a certified potion. And a permanent cure could take even longer. _I_ don't care about money, of course, and I'm lucky because I don't need to worry about it at the moment – I'm perfectly happy to live at home for a while and Mum and Dad don't mind. But if I was having to support myself completely, the St Mungo's funding wouldn't be enough to live on. Some people don't have the luxury of not needing a full income, or else they just aren't willing to dedicate their lives to something so unprofitable and so unguaranteed of success, especially when a temporary cure already exists. And nowadays, a lot of people don't even realise there is still a need for a permanent cure.

"But there must be loads of people who know there is. Werewolves themselves, and their friends and family!"

"Well, that's precisely the problem. Those who have personal motive to find a cure have never had the resources or the skills to do it. And those who did... weren't invested enough to see it through. And remember a lot of werewolves don't have many friends, or a family. Very few non-werewolves have witnessed first hand the devastating consequences of Lycanthropy. Dad told me that Kingsley tried, not that long after the war, to fund research into it, and there have been attempts in other countries over the years too. But so few people are interested. And those who are always seem to approach it from the wrong angle and give up the research after a few years."

"What do you mean, the wrong angle?"

Teddy opened his mouth to reply.

"In words I can understand, please," Hope added. Sometimes, she didn't have the faintest idea what Teddy was on about when he got all technical.

He grinned ruefully.

"Well, put simply... all research to date, from what I can gather, has been focused on trying to completely rid the werewolf's body of the "wolfish" genes. A werewolf bite alters your genetic make-up, see, and so the logical way of curing it is to try and get the genetic make-up back to how it was before the bite – to reverse it, if you like. "

"OK."

"So that's the angle previous studies have approached it from. And that's what hasn't worked. The Wolfsbane potion is the closest thing that's come to it. The potion modifies the body, ever so slightly, for a very short period of time, so that the werewolf genes are dampened enough for the individual to be harmless on the full moon. But of course, it's laborious, expensive, and doesn't stop the overall negative impact of the condition."

Hope nodded. She knew this, of course. Just as she had very brutally told Marion before Christmas.

"But what I'm hoping to look at," Teddy went on. "Is whether we can _further_ alter the genetic makeup. Take it beyond the change brought about by the bite, and into a place where the genes are still different but the transformations no longer happens. Does that make sense?"

"Yes," Hope said, not fully understanding, but determined not to look stupid in the face of what was obviously the simplest way that Teddy could think of explaining. "And – and that will work?"

Teddy looked serious. "Obviously there are no guarantees, but I am pretty hopeful. Magienetic study – that's the study of magical genetics-"

" _No_! Really?"

"You asked for simple!"

"OK, Sorry! Go on..."

"Magienetics has known huge advances over the last ten to fifteen years. There are so many new ways of studying and examining magical genes. They even offer a module in Magienetics now in your final year at Hogwarts. That's what gave me the idea in the first place, and I kept in touch with the witch who lectured on it, and she seemed to think it was worth pursuing."

"Sounds a bit complicated to me," Hope muttered, fairly convinced that this was a module that she would not be taking.

"Well, the Hogwarts course is just the very basics of it, obviously. But it's really interesting! And it's encouraging more and more people to get into the field. You know my friend Jessye? She's at St Mungo's now in the Magienetics department as well."

Hope thought for a second.

"Jessye's the really nice one, isn't she? With the long brown hair?"

Teddy laughed.

"I mean... I like to think all my friends are really nice Dopey. But yes, she is lovely. It's nice to have a proper friend at work as well."

"So would Jessye be able to help with the cure?"

"Not really." Teddy shook his head. "Jessye's gone into Magienetic counselling, so she studies the Chromos and MDI and Blood Magenes-"

Hope just stared back at him blankly and he trailed off.

"I did it again, didn't I?"

"Yep."

"Sorry." He finished his mouthful of chocolate and continued in simpler terms.

"Basically, Jessye studies and advises on how magic in the genes might be passed down in a bloodline. My research needs to focus on mutated genes and how they can be manipulated further. But some of her work might be able to help mine a bit later on. And vice versa."

"Much better." Hope grinned and took another egg. She was feeling quietly hopeful. It was early days, of course, but Teddy seemed positive and that was something.

They sat in silence for a bit.

"Did Dom say when they'd be back from France?" Teddy said suddenly.

"Probably not until next weekend," Hope said. "I haven't heard from her, but Dom did say that they might end up staying longer, to spend more time with Gabrielle and the new baby."

"Oh." Teddy looked disappointed at this. "I thought they were only going for a week." Hope stared at him, slightly confused. Since when did Teddy take so much interest in what Dom was doing?

"Why?"

"No reason," Teddy said at once, waving an airy hand. Hope did not believe him. Her family were the all-time champions of innocently brushing off seemingly meaningful comments, even her dad, who was able to produce that blank, placid expression even without the ability to morph. Hope suddenly had her own suspicions, anyway. She had never been entirely convinced that Teddy and Victoire had been _studying_ up in Victoire's room at their family Christmas gathering a few months ago. Who _studied_ on Boxing Day?

She stared at him curiously, but he just maintained his innocent look and changed the subject.

"So, who's going to win the quidditch cup this year?"

Hope smirked - Teddy didn't care much about quidditch either - but consented to answer his question.

"Well, we're out of the running and Gryffindor are too, whatever James says. Rox is adamant that Slytherin will clinch it, but… I reckon could finally be Hufflepuff's year."

"Dougal doing ok then?" Teddy laughed. Dougal was another of his friends, in the year below him, who was captaining the Hufflepuff team with such a laid-back attitude that it was surprising they had scored any points at all that year. Yet somehow, the Hufflepuff team were now favourites for the cup.

Hope nodded.

"He's just so chilled, it's unreal. But it actually seems to work. Ravenclaw didn't really take them seriously when we played them and ended up getting slaughtered."

"So are you still hoping to make the team next year?"

Hope nodded.

"Yep," she said grimly. "But the trial will be tough. Cal will be first chaser, and likely captain next year. And Dom will get back on the team obviously, however much she says otherwise. So that just leaves one chasing spot."

"You could change to seeking?" Teddy grinned slightly, knowing fine well what her reaction would be. "Or beating?"

She glared at him.

"If you're not careful I'm going to start asking you why you're sooo interested in Dom's trip to France, and why she – and I assume her beautiful older sister – aren't coming back until the end of the holidays."

Teddy stopped teasing her at once.

**oOo**

* * *

_May_

Dougal's team did win the cup, much to Roxanne's disappointment. Hufflepuff, however, celebrating their first quidditch cup win in sixteen years, threw such a wild party in their common room that three quarters of the house ended up in detention.

Hope was less bothered about the cup and more interested in Teddy's sudden interest in Victoire's absence over the holidays.

"Maybe," Dom said thoughtfully, when Hope asked her friend if she thought it was a possibility that their older siblings were now an item. "They've always been really good friends, after all. And now you mention it, Victoire did throw a tantrum when the postal strikes in France meant we couldn't send any letters. I didn't think much of it - she's always in a strop about something. But that would make sense."

"Yes! Teddy was definitely a bit sad when I told him you were staying longer, so he was probably expecting to hear from her."

"It's a bit weird though, isn't it?" Dom said. "Wouldn't it be like going out with your cousin?"

Hope pondered this.

"Well if they get married you'd be my sister-in-law!" she said. "So I'm all for it."

"Freaks reunited," Elodie said suddenly, appearing behind them. She had a horrible habit of materialising as if from nowhere and chipping into their conversations with some snide remark. "And don't you mean brother-in-law…" she added, already gliding on her way.

Hope pulled out her wand and pointed towards her retreating back, but Dom grabbed her wrist.

"Leave it," she said. " _Please_ leave it. It's just not worth it Hope. And anyway...you don't want a load more detentions, do you? Not now the weather's finally getting nice?"

"Fine," Hope said, glaring after Elodie. "But I think that it's time we went back to James and got some Hair loss Humbugs and Gum-Gums. We're going to use them both... at the same time... and she's going to look like a bald, toothless, little worm by the time we're finished with her!"

Dom, for all her previous protests, did not object to this.

**oOo**

* * *

_June_

On the second day of the summer holidays, Remus sat flicking through the yearly summary that came to every parent at the end of a school year.

"You seem to have received a fair few detentions this year," he commented. Dom, seated at the table with a glass of juice, grinned a little, and Hope just continued her hunt in the cupboard for snacks.

"Nothing bad though," she assured him. " _Why_ do we never have interesting biscuits? Ginger Newts are for boring, old people!"

"Sweetheart, I feel compelled to tell you that insulting your parents is really not the best way to get them to buy you more exciting treats," Remus said dryly, not looking up and flipping the page over. "You got a full weekend of them last month, I see!"

"Totally worth it, seeing Elodie's face when all her hair and teeth fell out. She looked like that creepy creature thing in that muggle book Teddy has. You know, the one about the ring. Especially because the sweets reacted together somehow and her head began to shrink. The nurse fixed it all for her, obviously, but Elodie knew it was me. She was already suspicious after the Self-Stinkers and she dobbed me in to Flitwick."

"So much for being amicable," her mother sighed. She was now looking over her husband's shoulder at the papers in his hand. Hope wasn't too worried. Her grades were perfectly fine, and as for detentions…well, neither of her parents could reasonably give her a lecture on _that_ , after everything the Weasleys and Harry had told her about their own school days. "And why did you do that?"

"She's mean!" Hope said at once. "She totally deserved it and you said yourself you'd never expect me to be nice to someone who is unkind about Dom!"

Dom winced a little and Hope felt suddenly guilty. She knew that Dom hated for a fuss to be made about anything to do with her, and so far had consented not to tell anyone else about the way Elodie was acting, even though she was pretty sure it bothered Dom more than Dom liked to let on. But how were things ever going to change if Dom didn't start calling people out on their behaviour? Hope was certainly prepared to do that on her behalf.

"Don't tell my mum and dad." Dom gazed up at her godparents with wide eyes and Remus and Tonks exchanged awkward glances. " _Please_ don't. It's really not that bad - it honestly doesn't bother me. And they do know things are a bit difficult sometimes. I don't want to worry them any more than that. And anyway," she shrugged resignedly. "It's just the way it is, isn't it. People are always going to make comments. I'll just have to get used to it."

Tonks's eyes blazed as she sat down next to Dom and reached out to take her hand.

"Now you listen to me, my love. There are some things in life that we have to get used to, but you being treated badly is most _certainly_ not one of them. Some of us have an easier time fitting in, for various reasons. Some of us are less accepted by our peers, however unjust that might be. But _no one_ is less deserving of respect!"

Dom just fiddled with a tiny splinter of wood on the table.

"Remus will say exactly the same thing," Tonks continued. "He's had first-hand experience of mistreatment just for being who he is."

Remus looked seriously across the table at his goddaughter. His eyes were very warm.

"Dom, let me tell you something. There was once a time when I couldn't visit Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley without being jeered at, a time when people refused to serve me in shops or restaurants if they knew what I was. There was a time when complete strangers would talk about me within earshot, not caring that I could hear them. When people even spat at me in the streets. And I used to put up with it, and brush it off and think that this was just how the world was and that I would have to get used to it."

"Do people do that now?" Dom looked quite horrified. Hope registered that it was odd that Dom should be so indignant on someone else's behalf, yet so resigned to her own difficult situation. Her dad shook his head.

"Not so much anymore. You still get idiots, of course. You will always get idiots who are prejudiced and unkind and badly informed, but things are so much better for me than they were even ten years ago. People are more understanding, more accepting. Other people are more willing to stand up in defence of my kind. And when someone is unpleasant, I no longer think, well this is just the way it has to be. Because it _doesn't_ have to be that way."

Dom managed a smile this time, as Remus continued.

"I'm not saying things will change like magic, Dom. They won't change until people with the power to make that change realise that this is a fight they have to help you with, which is what people did for me. But I truly believe that a day will come when you are treated better. Don't give up hope of that, because those who care about you definitely won't. I would- " he hesitated. "I would _strongly_ suggest telling someone if people are being unkind, whether it bothers you or not, like a teacher, or your head of house but," he added hastily, as Dom's eyes widened even further and she looked very anxious, "that is your decision. If nothing else, remember that your friends and family are here for you, to do what they can to make things better for you, and to tell you that if that if a cruel idiot doesn't want you in their life, they are not worth knowing. And," he winked at Hope, "quite deserving of losing all their hair and teeth once in a while."

Dom nodded uncertainly.

"Thanks!" she said in a small voice, as Tonks pulled her into a fierce hug.

"Can we have chocolate now?" Hope cut in.

"What makes you think I have chocolate? I thought we only had boring, old people snacks?"

"You always give us chocolate when you do serious talks like that. You must have some somewhere."

Remus gazed back at her blankly for a second and then relented, his lips twitching.

"There's a Honeydukes megabar under the sink."

"What's it doing under the sink?" Tonks enquired indignantly.

"Hidden from you of course."

Dom burst out laughing.

"So," she said, now considerably perked up, as Hope retrieved the bar of chocolate and broke it into bits, handing her friend the biggest piece of all. "Quidditch! We need to get planning your training if you're going to make the team this year!"

**oOo**

* * *

_August_

"Come on Hope, tighter turns!" Fred Weasley swooped around her, shouting over the rush of air that was loud in her ears. Hope did not protest. She had wanted to be trained up, and this was the price she would pay.

She wheeled about her Nimbus 3000, an early birthday present from her whole family – as a new broom was the only thing she wanted, they had all chipped in to get it - and made to start the course again.

"You're doing really well!" Dom assured her, forty-five minutes later. They had all stopped for a drink, very warm and red in the face. Fleur was putting out glasses and huge jugs of lemonade on the garden table. "And it's only the start of August, remember! We've got loads more time to train you up!"

Ginny, who had been watching from a deckchair, smiled broadly. "I'm impressed!" she said to Hope. "You've come on loads even since I last watched you. Keep that up and you'll be in with a good chance at the trials, definitely!"

Hope grinned at the encouragement. "Thanks Ginny! Can we go again?"

Fred and Roxanne both groaned.

"Let's just take a break," Dom laughed. "I'm starving, and Dad says the food's nearly ready. It'll be light for ages, we'll have plenty of time after we've eaten."

Reluctantly, Hope consented to go in and wash her hands for dinner.

"Where's Harry?" she said, looking round the table on her return and realising that he was not there.

"Stuck at work," Tonks said. "He'll be here later. Savage is still making him work obscene hours, under the excuse of prepping him for Head Auror, even though it's totally ridiculous. He could have been head of the department over a decade ago. The real reason is that Savage is incapable of doing something on his own, because he likes to have someone to blame if things go wrong."

"Why _wasn't_ Harry Head Auror over a decade ago then?" Hope enquired.

Tonks sighed. "He wasn't qualified straight after the war, and unfortunately once someone's in the position, it's very hard to get them out of it when there's no justification for firing them. Employment rights occasionally favour those they shouldn't. We reckon that Kingsley always wanted Harry to be Head Auror, and that he picked Savage just after the war because he was the best choice of those who were near retirement age. But it's backfired a little, because Savage is so comfortable getting other people to do his job that he just enjoys the perks while doing the bare minimum. He's finally announced that he'll be retiring in a year or so though, and then Harry will get his shot."

"I think _you_ should be Head Auror," James piped up. "You're older than Dad."

"James!" Ginny sighed and shot Tonks an apologetic sort of look. "Could you not be so rude, please?"

"I'm not being rude!" James looked outraged. "Tonks _is_ older than Dad. She's been an Auror way longer. That's not rude. It's _truthful_."

"Fair point," Tonks grinned. "But to be honest, James, I'm not sure I'm cut out for Head Auror, even if your dad wasn't very obviously the best person for the job. There's so much paperwork involved, and I can't even keep my corner of the study tidy at home.

"That is certainly the truth," Remus acknowledged with a dry smile. "And it is a trait you seem to have passed on to Hope. The state of her room this morning was abysmal."

"Urgh, you're just like Elodie." Hope rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion. "She's always moaning at me for leaving my corner in a mess. It's my space. It's not like I spill on to _her_ things."

"Hope you did not just compare your Dad to _Elodie_." Dom looked appalled. Hope knew that there was an edge of genuine horror to her friend's reaction and looked guiltily at her father. "Didn't mean it Dad, honest."

Remus just raised an amused eyebrow.

"So who is this Elodie girl?" Ron grinned across at Hope as they all tucked into hot dogs and burgers. "Anyone we know?"

Hope shrugged. "Her name's Elodie Carmichael," she said. "And I don't know if you know her, but she's a total bitch."

"Hope, haven't I told you not to use that word?" Tonks said sharply. Hope scowled.

"But she _is_. I tried giving her a chance after Christmas, just like you told me, and she got even worse. So no way am I bothering now."

"I'm sure you could still sort things out with her," Hermione said. "All rivalries can be resolved, Hope. Normally they are caused by simple misunderstandings. I'm sure you could be good friends if you tried."

"I can't be _friends_ with her!" Hope said furiously. "She's always really horrible about -"

Dom widened her eyes frantically at her friend and Hope changed tack at lightning speed.

"-Harry." she finished. This was partly true, although the subject had only come up once, and Elodie had been cried down by half the common room. Apparently even her Queen Bee status wasn't enough to allow her to insult Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived and saviour of the wizarding world. She had certainly never dared speak ill of him again.

"I'm sure Harry won't be too distraught by a few comments made by a teenage girl," Ginny laughed. "Drop in the ocean compared to what he had at school. I don't remember a Carmichael, though. Are her parents magical?"

"Oh yes," Hope pulled a face. "Elodie Carmichael has the purest blood in our dormitory, we are never allowed to forget _that_."

"Carmichael," George said thoughtfully. "There was an Eddie Carmichael in our year – he was in Ravenclaw, and I'm pretty sure pureblood. Could be her father?"

Hope just shrugged again.

"Dunno," she said, piling four slices of cheese onto her burger, ignoring George's disgusted expression. George hated cheese. "We haven't discussed our parents' names to be honest. I don't talk to her at all if I can help it."

"I think Eddie married someone in your year." George turned to Ron and Hermione. "I remember because all our year heard about it – I'm surprised you guys didn't. Was a massive ceremony - although I didn't get an invite, gutted of course. Patsy was it? That Slytherin girl who was friends with Malfoy?"

"Wait." Hermione looked up from plate of salad, a revolted expression on her face. "You surely don't mean _Pansy_? Pansy Parkinson?"

"Yeah, rings a bell," George said, screwing up his forehead in thought.

"Yes!" Roxanne chipped in. "Their mum is called Pansy. Definitely! I heard Kirstin say once."

Hermione's eyes bulged. "You have got to be joking? Someone _married_ that puffed up…pug faced… _cow_? And _reproduced_?"

Ron, Ginny and George roared with laughter as the children all burst into fits of giggles. Remus and Tonks were now completely failing to look disapproving. Seeing Hermione lose her composure, particularly in front of the children, was a rare thing indeed.

"Um...Hermione," Tonks said, trying to sound serious, although her lips were twitching dangerously. "Weren't you in the middle of telling Hope how all rivalries can be resolved? How it doesn't do any good to hold grudges?"

"Yes!" Hermione said, trying to recover herself. "Yes, absolutely. And I mean it, Hope. I'm sure you could work it out with Elodie in the end, at least enough to be civil with her."

But Hope was just grinning as she wolfed down the last mouthful of her burger.

"Well, I won't tell her you called her Mum a cow, at least. I promise," she reassured the adults. "OK, come on. I need to get back to training!"

**OOO**


	4. Zeus

* * *

**Zeus**

_Sky_

* * *

_September_

Somehow, the new school year had come around already. Hope had enjoyed not having to journey to the castle by freezing boat ride, and she and Dom now sat watching the sorting and commenting on where they thought each student would end up, whether they knew them or not.

" _Malfoy, Scorpius_."

"Got to be Slytherin, surely," Dom muttered. "All Malfoys have been in Slytherin."

"All Weasleys had been in Gryffindor until you and Rox came along," Hope reminded her, grinning, and Dom laughed. Scorpius's small, pointed face was white and terrified as he sat down on the stool.

After a long while, the hat made its announcement.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Dom's mouth fell open. Hope caught sight of Roxanne, over at the Slytherin table. She and Morella were muttering together intensely. They had no doubt expected Scorpius to be sorted into Slytherin too.

Elodie gave a sniff from a couple of seats down the table.

"I'm not sure what his parents will say," she said. "We talked to them at the station – Mum's a very old family friend of course! They were convinced he'd end up in Slytherin. Ravenclaw, I might have understood... but _Hufflepuff_?"

"What's wrong with being a Hufflepuff?"

"Nothing," Elodie said smugly. "If you don't mind being a bit of a dunce. Surprised you didn't end up there yourself, Lupin. I think the hat must have got you and your brother mixed up, you know."

Dom grabbed Hope's wrist under the table to warn her against retaliating. "Not worth it remember," she hissed. "Anyway, it's Al's turn now."

Hope turned her back firmly on Elodie and watched as Albus tripped up to the stool and had the hat placed on his head. His bright green eyes showed a similar fear to Scorpius's as the hat fell over them.

"Gryffindor?" Dom muttered.

Hope shook her head.

"Nah, I don't reckon so. Teddy said he really wants to be in Hufflepuff. I think he's secretly hoping not to be with James."

"I can't really blame him," Dom said. "I know James is always nice to us, but he's so mean to Al sometimes."

Five seconds later, Albus's wish had been granted, and he was traipsing off towards Teddy's old table, looking heartily relieved.

Now there were just a few more first years to be sorted.

Hope clapped along as _Sullivan, Mitchell_ joined their own table.

_Travers, Daniel_ became a Slytherin.

_Watts, Sasha_ went to Gryffindor.

_Weasley, Rose_ was the last name on the list.

"Ravenclaw or Gryffindor," Hope muttered. "Probably Gryffindor though. Ron definitely wants her to be."

"Hmm... I think Ravenclaw!" Dom said. "She's the cleverest person I know. Except Teddy maybe. Well, and Louis obviously, but much as I love him, he's just a bit unnatural."

"Runs in the family," Elodie snorted. Hope hadn't realised that they were still talking loudly enough for her to hear. Her retort was lost in the hat's announcement.

"RAVENCLAW!" the hat shouted, and Dom and Hope cheered loudly as Rose stumbled over to their table.

"Sit with us!" Hope said eagerly, shifting up a little, and Rose sank into the seat next to her. Dom gave her a hug.

"Few surprises there!"

Rose nodded, but she was looking over towards the Gryffindor table. James waved at her cheerfully. He and Rose, for all their differences in personality, had always got on surprisingly well, and Rose was looking sad as she waved back.

"Ravenclaw's the best, don't worry Rosie!" Hope said at once. She wasn't sure she really believed what she was saying. As much as she loved being with Dom, sometimes, particularly when her mum and Teddy talked about their old house, she wished she had let the hat put her in Hufflepuff. Everyone sounded so warm and fun and friendly there. There was something a little cool and standoffish about a lot of students in their house, and the atmosphere in their tower was often quiet and serious due to the amount of studying most Ravenclaws tended to do. But she wanted to cheer Rose up, and anyway, their younger friend was much cleverer and more studious than she was. She would probably fit right in.

"We'll show you the common room before you go to bed!" Hope continued. "Did you know we have a reading room as well? Like a mini library just for Ravenclaws?"

Rose's face lit up at once.

O

The next day was a Saturday. It had never made sense to a lot of the students that they always went back to Hogwarts on September 1st, regardless of what day that fell on, but that was just the way it always had been, ever since the founding of the school. It was nice, in a way, to have a couple of days to enjoy the grounds and get used to Hogwarts life again before lessons began. After a busy day of catching up with their friends, Hope, Roxanne and Dom sat together by the lake, enjoying the last few rays of evening autumn sunshine.

"Hey, look!" Hope said suddenly. "There's Al. And isn't that Scorpius too?"

"Yeah, must be!"

"I wonder what Uncle Harry will say if they become friends," Roxanne mused. "He hated the Malfoys when he was at school."

"Ron told Rosie at the station that she should beat him in every test and that she wasn't ever to marry him," Hope grinned. "I think he was joking though. And Hermione told him off, of course. Let's go and talk to them!"

They crossed over to where Albus was sitting, chatting away to Scorpius. Scorpius looked quite nervous, Hope noticed, but he mirrored Albus's smile as the three girls approached.

"Hey Al-Pal! Seen the Giant Squid yet?"

Albus grinned up at them but shook his head.

"It's so nice to have your first day just to explore!" Hope exclaimed. "My first day was so boring, all lessons and timetables. And I kept getting lost."

"We've already got lost plenty of times," Albus assured them. "This is Scorpius, by the way."

"I know," Roxanne replied. "I was sitting with Morella Flint when you got sorted. She was so shocked that you weren't put in our house."

Scorpius looked downcast at this, and Dom nudged her cousin sharply in the ribs.

"Well… hey, you're missing out, but I'm sure Hufflepuff won't be _too_ bad," Roxanne went on hastily.

"Yeah," Hope said. "Teddy always says that Hufflepuffs have great midnight feasts because they are so close to the kitchens.'

"You won't be winning the quidditch cup this time round though, I'm afraid!" Roxanne continued. "Slytherin are going to thrash you all this year!"

"Not if Ravenclaw has anything to do with it." Dom's tone was one of grim determination.

"Yeah, yeah, when was the last time you won the cup? You didn't even come close last year!"

"But we'll have Hope this season."

"You don't know that," Hope said at once, feeling nervous at the very thought of the trials.

"Ah come on, you've been training all summer and you were already good to start with."

"Maybe," Hope said. "Anyway, let's go to dinner, I'm starving! See ya Al! Bye Scorpius, nice to meet you."

Scorpius, still looking a little shell shocked from the standard onslaught of Weasley excitement, smiled nonetheless and murmured something of the same.

"He seems really nice," Dom commented, as they went on their way. "Grandad always goes on about the Malfoys, and how awful they are, but Scorpius doesn't seem like that at all!"

"Grandad goes on about _Lucius_ Malfoy," Roxanne corrected her. "That's his grandfather I think, not even his father. And anyway, we don't all turn out like our parents, do we?"

Hope reflected on this. Granny Molly had once told her, in amusement, that she was so like both her parents in different ways that it was quite surreal. Hope wasn't entirely sure that she saw the similarities. Maybe she would one day.

O

Just a week later, Hope felt nervous as she pulled on a ribbed blue jumper and a pair of padded trousers. Elodie, who was fixing her hair while she waited for Natalie and Marion to finish getting dressed, gave her a rather scornful look as she self-consciously got her broomstick out from under the bed.

" _You're_ trying out for the quidditch team?"

Hope glared at her.

"Anything wrong with that?"

"You can't even walk downstairs without tripping over! How are you going to stay on a broomstick? And I hope you're prepared to be rejected. Cal will never choose a tiny little second year like you to be on the team!"

Hope just turned her back on Elodie and left the room. Secretly, she was a little worried about this too, but her friends and relatives had impressed on her that age meant nothing when it came to making the Hogwarts quidditch teams. George and his twin had been Gryffindor beaters for most of their time at school, Charlie had also made the team in his second year, and Harry had shocked the school and become the Gryffindor seeker within a few weeks of him starting Hogwarts. That was Harry, of course, and different rules tended to apply to his life, but the point had been made. There was no reason why she shouldn't make the team now, as a second year. Which meant, Hope thought grimly, that age was definitely not an excuse if she messed up.

She cast a quick look around at the others once they were all standing on the pitch. The competition was going to be pretty fierce, not helped by the fact that, as she had told Teddy before, there was only really one chasing position up for grabs. Cal Burchess, now captain, would be one, and Dom would almost certainly be another, even though Dom insisted that nothing was guaranteed. But captains rarely dropped players from the previous year's team, because they had the advantage of a year's hard training and an existing connection with the other players. It was very hard to top that just from a summer of practice, and Dom was an excellent player anyway. So that left one spot. Hope could already see that there were no other second years trying out, and everyone there was taller than she was. She could have morphed herself taller, she supposed. But that was more trouble than it was worth. Morphing her body took a lot more effort than her hair colour, and she would need maximum concentration for this.

The beaters tried out, then the keepers. There were a few stand out players in each group. The seeker spot would surely go to Rowan Higgs, Hope thought, watching him effortlessly outstrip the other two candidates. He was easily the fastest and most agile.

"Chasers!" Call called, as the seekers landed back on the ground, Rowan clearly trying not to look too pleased with himself as he handed the little golden ball - still untouched by any of the other applicants - back to Cal. Feeling tiny next to everyone else, and with a sick feeling in her stomach, Hope traipsed forward.

"OK, fairly simple," Cal said. "I'll divide you into two groups. There will be a keeper at each end. I'll put a couple of beaters up there to fire the bludgers. Just play as you normally would. But I'm not just looking for goal scorers, remember. It's about other things as well: teamwork, speed, defence. Alright," he gestured towards half of them. "You four on one team, you four on the other."

Dom grinned at Hope as they both shuffled into team one. Being on the same team was bound to make this easier. Hope felt another great swell of nerves, and then Cal blew his whistle, and she kicked off from the ground. And everything immediately melted away.

Elodie had had a point. She really wasn't very graceful on the ground, a trait, as she was constantly reminded, that she had inherited from her mother. But flying was something else. Everything felt different on a broom. It was something she didn't need to think about, something she could just _do_. Well, she didn't need to think about the flying part. Tactics were another matter, of course. Streaking towards the goalposts, she caught the quaffle that Dom passed to her and, after performing a kind of corkscrew manoeuvre to avoid a bludger, threw it, hard and straight, past the keeper. First goal.

Twenty minutes later, they landed back on the ground, Cal eyeing them all thoughtfully. Hope was feeling dispirited. She knew she had been one of the faster ones, and had worked well with Dom, unsurprisingly after all their training sessions over the summer. But she had definitely not played her best. She had been beaten to the hoop a lot by the girl she had been marking, had the quaffle stolen several times, and after her first goal, had only scored two others. Whatever Cal had said, goal scoring was important for chasing, and Hope was pretty sure that she had no chance whatsoever of making the team.

"I need to think about this for a bit," Cal said. "You all flew well and it's a tough decision. I'll put up the team on the noticeboard tonight."

"You did well!" Dom said, as they grabbed some toast from the great hall and headed back up to the common room, discussing the trial in depth. But Hope sighed.

"I didn't really though, did I? Worse than I played over the summer, and I think other people were better anyway, even if I'd played my best."

"I don't think so," Dom said stubbornly. Hope just raised her eyebrows and Dom relented.

"OK, so you weren't at your best today. You were just nervous."

Hope knew that wasn't an excuse. Nerves were no good if they meant that you couldn't play to standard when it mattered.

"Cal said there would be a couple of reserves," Dom added bracingly. "So even if you don't make the main team, you'll still be able to train with us!"

But Hope didn't think she'd even played well enough to be in reserve. She tried to quash the disappointment. There was always next year.

"At least you're guaranteed a spot," she said to Dom. "You were easily the best up there."

Dom looked unconvinced.

"Come on, you were! You're definitely going to be back on the team. And don't worry about me. I can always try out next year."

They entered the common room, Dom, as usual, being the one to answer the pass-question from the eagle door knocker. Hope didn't understand them at all half the time. It was just as well that Dom had brains for both of them.

"How's the quidditch star?" Elodie enquired, as they passed her chair. "I'm sure you'll be signed by the Arrows any day now. Or maybe the Canons. They're always looking out for hopeless cases."

Hope felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. Elodie was never going to let her live this down.

"Piss off Elodie," Dom said roughly, pulling Hope past her.

Elodie shouted something crude to Dom as they walked away. Dom flinched a little at the cruel words but otherwise ignored her.

O

Dom was still up in her dormitory getting changed when Cal approached Hope in the common room.

"Can I have a word?"

She followed him into a corner. Was he about to be extra nice to her? Condolences and a pat on the head for trying hard. She hoped not. It would be doubly humiliating.

"Nothing to be worried about," Cal assured her, reading her expression. "Just a quick question - I'm asking everyone who tried out the same thing… Based on that trial, who would _you_ pick as chasers for the team, other than me?"

Hope stared at him in confusion. "Is this a trick question?"

"No, you can answer however you like."

"OK..." Hope was still confused, but thought hard. "Dom, obviously," she said. "She's fast and she scored the most goals and you played together all last year so you already know each other's style. And she's got a ton of team spirit. You'd be mad to drop her."

"Who else?"

Hope resisted the urge to say "me". She had not performed well and they both knew that.

"Daphne," she said finally, speaking of the tall, gangly third year, with her long arms and swift style.

"Why?"

Hope thought back to the trials. "I mean, maybe it's just because I was marking her a lot," she said. "But she seemed the next best to me. She was fast too, and she scored quite a few goals. But she also has a really unique flying style. She was unpredictable and kept taking me by surprise and throwing me off. That's pretty important for a chaser. There's no point being able to score a goal if you can't get to the hoops in the first place. And she kept marking me on the right and knocking the quaffle out of my hand, forcing me to play with my non-dominant hand."

Cal's expression gave nothing away as he looked at her.

"OK," he said. "Thanks."

Hope stared after him suspiciously as he walked away. Whatever he said, that had definitely been a trick question.

O

The list went up that evening. Hope didn't even bother going over. She supposed there was a slight chance that she might be reserve, but she was happy enough to find that out later. No doubt Elodie would be around to gloat about it very soon anyway.

"Go on," she said to Dom, whose eyes kept drifting over to the board. "You know you want to. Just go and look."

Dom shuffled off obediently and came back thirty seconds later, grinning from ear to ear.

"Told you!" Hope said, determinedly pushing down the feeling of envy. Dom deserved it, and she was so often overlooked and downtrodden anyway. Hope was certainly not going to ruin this for her by being bitter.

"And I told _you_!"

Hope's eyes widened.

"I got reserve?"

"Nope." Dom was grinning even more broadly.

"Dom, if this is a joke…"

"Come on, would I?" Dom protested.

Hope knew her friend would do no such thing.

"But how? There were way better players than me. Why wouldn't Cal pick one of them?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?"

Hope looked up to see Cal approaching them, his eyes sparkling in a friendly manner.

"Seen the sheet then?" he grinned. "I'll be making you work hard, mind!"

Dom smiled in return, but Hope just gazed up at him, her eyebrows knotted. "Why did you pick me? You know I wasn't the best after Dom."

Cal sat down in front of them and eyed her more seriously. "No, you weren't," he said. "Although you've got fantastic potential, that first goal was brilliant. But no, you didn't play the best. And neither did Daphne either, despite what you said earlier. She'll be second reserve. Chris, based purely on what I saw out there, would have been my choice after Dom."

"So why didn't you put him on the main team?"

"Because," Cal said. "I asked the same question I asked you to all eight chasers who tried out today. And I got a variety of responses. Two of them didn't mention Dom at all. That was an automatic out because any idiot should have been able to see that she was the strongest player up there. Two of them said Dom and themselves. Well, that's fair enough, but they didn't really give me any real reason as to why they would be better, just the usual stuff about being dedicated and training hard, which is good but it isn't enough in itself. Three of them correctly identified Dom and Chris as the best players in that trial. They didn't, however, base this on anything other than number of goals scored and flying technique."

"OK." Hope was trying to remember what she had said. She had been so surprised by the question that she had felt she'd rambled a little.

"You," Cal continued, "not only identified a good player, but you were able to tell me why they were skilled, how they managed to get past you in the air, and what techniques you used to respond to them. And being able to identify opposition strengths and weaknesses is worth more at this stage than if you had scored a dozen goals up there. Although," he added, grinning again. "A dozen goals in our first match certainly wouldn't go amiss."

"So," Hope still didn't dare believe it. "So I'm genuinely on the team?"

"Genuinely on the team," Cal assured her. "We'll get your scoring up to scratch no problem, and you and Dom work so well together, which is another advantage. I think we'll have a great chance this year, I really do."

"Told you Cal was awesome," Dom said, as the older boy walked away. Hope was feeling much happier, if still a little uncertain.

"What?"

"I just – I'm happy! Of course I am. But it – it's a gamble. On his part. If I wasn't the strongest. I don't want to let him down. Especially if most people said Chris was the best."

" _I_ didn't say that."

Hope screwed up her forehead like she often did when working something out, trying to do the maths.

"But you must have done – Cal said two were out and two said you and themselves and then three said you and Chris. Plus me makes eight."

"I think Chris probably said himself. So he would have been counted twice."

"So who did you pick? Please tell me you said yourself?"

"Well, I didn't want to," Dom admitted. "But Cal didn't exactly give me a choice."

Quite right, Hope thought, as Cal went up even further in her estimation. Dom needed to be forced to admit that she was good at things, once in a while.

"And who else?"

"Who do you think?"

Hope looked down at her feet, not feeling much better. Dom would have said that regardless of how she had played, she was sure.

"And I meant it Hope!" Dom said earnestly. "You trained so hard all summer and you normally play way better than you did today anyway, and Cal's right, you're so good at reading the game. And it's not just me who thinks so. Charlie and Ginny were saying too, that day you were round for practice and Ginny stayed for dinner after you'd gone home. They said you had raw talent. That you could be better than any of us in a few years."

Hope tried to look modest. But there was suddenly a warm little glow in her chest. She wasn't ever the best at anything, or so she felt. She did alright at school, of course, but her grades were certainly nothing to boast about. Teddy, much as she adored him, had always been the clever one, the successful one. The one who was sensible and good while Hope was often in trouble. The one who was humble, and could admit that he was wrong and say sorry, and always resolved disagreements tactfully and calmly, when Hope was prone to flying off the handle and sulking, however much she regretted it afterwards. Teddy was the one who had been prefect and Head Boy and got ten OWLS and seven NEWTs and gone to work at St Mungo's to follow his life's ambition of finding a cure for werewolves.

But Teddy had never been any good at quidditch. He could get from A to B on a broom and that was about it. It felt nice, to finally have something that _she_ was good at.

"See," Dom said, as her face brightened. "You'll be brilliant, and I wouldn't be surprised if you _did_ score a dozen goals in our first match!"

**oOo**

* * *

_December_

"I hear Ravenclaw flattened Hufflepuff in your first match, and you scored about a dozen goals," Teddy grinned at his sister, on the first evening of the Christmas holidays.

"Only seven actually," she replied at once. "Dom got six and Cal got ten."

"Not that you're keeping score!" Remus raised an amused eyebrow.

"Well, Dom set me up for loads of them," she added, trying to sound humble. Then she couldn't help smirking. "Elodie's so mad that we both got on the team. You should have seen her face when she came over to gloat after the trials and then realised she had nothing to make fun of us for."

"The being amicable still not going well then?" her mother said, her tone sharp. Hope made no reply. The truth was that Elodie was becoming even more unbearable, particularly when it came to her comments about Dom. But Dom had pleaded that Hope not say anything to her parents this time.

"They'll just tell _my_ parents," she had said. "You know they will. Our parents don't like keeping stuff from each other. They won't feel comfortable not telling my mum and dad if you tell them what Elodie's really like. And I don't want to worry them."

Hope wasn't sure she felt good about keeping it from them either, but _don't tell our parents_ was a cardinal rule between the Weasley cousins, and if that's what Dom wanted, that was how it would have to be.

"I do have other friends!" she said hastily to her parents. "More than last year, honest! All the people on the quidditch team are really nice. And I sit next to Michael in some lessons. And Dom and I hang out with Rosie a lot - when she's not busy studying. And also Al. Did you know he's really good friends with Scorpius Malfoy?"

Her mother smiled at this. "Yes!" she said. "Harry told me. Apparently Al was a bit nervous about their reaction, but I think they are just relieved that the Potter-Malfoy rivalry won't be passed on to a new generation!"

"Was it really that bad?"

Her father nodded.

"I had to break up more than one serious fight when I taught them," he said. "But from what I hear Draco isn't so bad anymore. And his mother, of course, ended up being crucial to our victory in the Battle of Hogwarts."

"That reminds me!" Tonks said, looking suddenly at Remus. "I meant to tell you but it slipped my mind with everything else going on... Narcissa actually wrote to Mum, not too long after Scorpius started school. They've seen each other a couple of times since then and Mum's going to meet Scorpius in the holidays!"

"Why would Gran meet Scorpius?" Hope asked in confusion.

Tonks smiled. "Your Gran's sister is Narcissa Malfoy," she said. "And Draco Malfoy is actually my cousin, which is a weird thought."

Hope gaped. "Gran's sister is Scorpius's gran? I never knew that! I knew she had a sister but when I asked about her she wouldn't tell me anything."

Remus and Tonks exchanged an odd sort of look, but when her mother replied, it was in perfectly casual tones.

"Well, it was always a difficult relationship, although your Gran was allowed on the jury that determined whether the Malfoys would be imprisoned, and was one of those who insisted that their part in the final battle was instrumental enough to allow their pardon. They hadn't really spoken at all since then, but it seems that Narcissa had been hoping for a chance of reconciliation for a while, and Scorpius being placed in Hufflepuff gave her an opportunity. I think Mum's secretly really pleased as well, to be honest."

"Well that's good at least - hang on!" Hope's brain caught up with the conversation. "If Scorpius's dad is your cousin, does that make Scorpius _my_ cousin? Our cousin?"

"Second cousin," Teddy said. "But yes, we're related to him!"

Hope pondered this for a few seconds then grinned. "That's cool," she said. "Having an actual blood relative at school! He's really nice, you know."

Teddy nodded. "Vic said that too."

Hope's eyes sparkled wickedly. "So how _are_ things with you and Victoiirrre?"

"Good thanks," he said simply, looking down at his food. "She's in France for Christmas, of course, but I'll see her when she's back."

"Isn't it weird? You're basically going out with your cousin?"

"Hope!" Tonks sighed. "Is that really necessary?"

"I'm not _judging_ ," Hope protested. "I'm just saying."

"She doesn't feel anything like my cousin." Teddy looked even more awkward and his cheeks went very red. "More- more like my best friend."

Hope suddenly felt bad. She didn't like embarrassing Teddy. He never embarrassed her. She hurriedly took the conversation in a different direction, as she remembered some further news from her last week of term.

"Professor Izatt is retiring after this year. She told us in our last class."

"No!" Teddy looked up in dismay, his cheeks back to normal colour. "But she's such a great teacher!"

"I know!" Hope said miserably. "She's so nice, and fair… and really interesting as well. They'll never get anyone half as good!"

Teddy looked over at their father. "Maybe you should apply for the job, Dad. You loved teaching, didn't you?"

Hope felt surprised at this, though not unpleasantly. Their father was smiling.

"I did, Teddy. But I'm really not sure it's for me this time. A lot has changed since then. Anyway, I don't think Hope would be too thrilled to have her old dad teaching her, do you?"

Hope considered this. It would be odd, certainly, but she couldn't imagine that she would hate it. Michael didn't seem to mind Neville teaching him, and he was not only his teacher but his head of house.

"You can if you want to," she blurted out. "I don't mind. You would be a nice teacher. And you're always fair!"

"Not interesting though..." Remus chuckled and she hastily amended herself. "No, no you would be that too!"

"Well, it's kind of you, sweetheart," Remus said, as Tonks laughed as well. "But it doesn't matter. It won't be me going for that job."

"Why not?"

Remus just looked thoughtfully around their bright kitchen. "Well... there was once a time when Hogwarts was my home," he said. "And it was a wonderful home. But now, my home is here. I can't imagine it being anywhere else."

**oOo**

* * *

_January_

Regardless of who would be teaching them the following year, Hope was determined to make the most of Izatt's classes. They learned the disarming charm in the week after Christmas, which Hope paid special attention to, Harry having impressed upon her many times that this was a very important spell to learn. Then they learnt about the wizarding wars, and Voldemort's rise. As Hope knew a lot about this already, she was able to gain thirty points for Ravenclaw with her detailed knowledge. She did well in the lessons about Dark creatures as well. The advantage, she supposed, of having a magizoology expert for a father.

Unfortunately, she was not performing quite as well in some of her other lessons, scraping by at Transfiguration and zoning out altogether in History of Magic. Potions was a categorical nightmare.

"Miss Lupin, did you even read the notes on the board before starting this?" Professor Leppard said in exasperation one lesson, looking down at the curdled mess in her cauldron.

"Yes, I did!" Hope said. It was true that she had read them, although admittedly she may have been a bit slapdash with some of the ingredients.

"Then what is this?"

"It's an anti-irritant potion."

Professor Leppard looked as though she would soon be needing an anti-irritant herself.

"I can assure you that it is not. You need to try harder, Lupin. This isn't an acceptable standard of work and I know you have it in you to do far better than this!"

Hope scowled at her back as she moved on to the next table. She knew perfectly well what the teacher meant by that and it was so unfair. Just because Teddy was a genius didn't mean that she was. Most teachers refrained from making any sort of comparison between herself and Teddy - as it should be, Hope thought angrily - but Leppard never seemed able to help herself.

Even so, Hope could not be bothered to get upset over something as stupid as potions. She threw herself into quidditch instead, as the team prepared for the upcoming match against Slytherin, which would take place in February.

"I so want to win the cup this year!" Dom said for the hundredth time, as they sat together one night after practice. Hope knew that their chances were good - their team was playing better and better as time went on - but it would still be a difficult game. She, Dom and Cal were stronger than the Slytherin chasers, but Roxanne was a talented seeker, hated to be beaten, and would no doubt be making every effort to get an early capture of the snitch.

"I reckon we've got a good chance!" Hope said decisively.

"Only if you're not as hopeless as you seem," Elodie, walking past, hissed the comment at them and then retreated, just as she always did.

"Coward," Hope called after her, turning round as Elodie disappeared up the stairs. "Say something to our faces for once, you spineless little worm."

"Ignore her," Dom said. "Just leave her be, she'll only get worse if you antagonise her. Focus on the match. It'll be tough, you know it will. You'll need all your concentration."

**oOo**

* * *

_February_

It was a tough game, no doubt about that, and a long one as well. But Cal, Dom and Hope were on top form, and spurred on by their performance, and the ever increasing Ravenclaw scoreboard, the rest of the team played better than they had all year. Finally, after nearly three hours of play, Roxanne was just beaten to the snitch by Rowan, ensuring Ravenclaw's win of four hundred and ten points to one hundred and fifty.

Ravenclaw, who had not been in with such a good chance of winning the quidditch cup in years, celebrated for many hours that evening. Finally, as it neared midnight, the common room began to empty, but Dom and Hope stayed downstairs, still chatting animatedly about the game with some of their teammates. They were discussing the more spectacular goals in detail when Elodie drifted past with Natalie. Marion was not with them.

"You know," she said, her voice carrying as she caught the end of their conversation. "I'm quite surprised that Dom didn't score more goals."

Hope glared at her, but there was a sinking feeling in her chest as she saw where this was going. Dom had warned her that antagonising Elodie was not going to help, and now she was going to be the one who paid for Hope's inability to resist a rise.

"She banked us seventy points, you numbskull," Chris Hodges, who had taken his reserve spot on the team with reasonably good grace, bit back at her. He was not at all fond of Elodie.

Elodie just gave him a look of disdain. Unfortunately, comments from those she did not find attractive or worth her time did not have any impression on her whatsoever.

"Yes," she said. "But aren't boys supposed to be stronger."

There was an awkward sort of silence.

"That's so sexist," Keith Tovey said at once.

"True though!" Elodie smirked. "And Hopeless scored seven too but Cal scored twelve, so Dom really should have been up there with him."

Dom just got up and walked away, tears sparkling in her eyes. Cal, Hope noticed, was also within earshot, and staring at Elodie with a very unpleasant expression on his face, but no one spoke as Dom fled upstairs and Elodie waltzed off to sit in a recently vacated armchair by the fire.

Hope resisted the urge to launch herself on Elodie and punch her face in. Dom was more important right now.

She found her friend up in her dormitory - thankfully alone - tears streaming down her face.

"Oh Dom."

Dom hastily tried to dry her eyes,

"I'm sorry."

"Don't you dare apologise," Hope said fiercely, sitting on the bed next to her. "She's evil, and she's getting worse. Dom, I wish you'd tell someone how awful she's being. Tell Flitwick."

"Flitwick knows," Dom said at once. "He knows people aren't always nice. There's not much he can do. People have been making comments ever since I got here."

"But Dom, she is worse than most. Most people aren't this bad. I know they stare and whisper sometimes and that's bad enough. But Elodie actually seeks you out to be hateful. And what she just did. Putting you down in front of everyone when you played so well and helped us win the match-"

"It's just the way it is."

" _No_ ," Hope said. "No, it's not the way it is. Remember what my mum and dad said. You should never accept being treated like crap. You can't just ignore it."

"But people do ignore it!" Dom burst out. " _Everyone_ ignores it. Most people aren't mean like she is, that is true. But no one dares contradict her. People feel awkward and uncomfortable and try and pretend that it's not happening. You didn't see anyone else jumping to my defence just now, did you?"

"Chris and Keith did."

"Not really. Chris stuck up for my goal scoring and Keith told her she was sexist. No one said a word about what she was actually saying!"

"But-"

"Hope, please leave it," Dom said. "I've told you. I just want to ignore it too, as best I can." She turned her back and faced the wall, lying on her side and drawing her knees up to her chest.

Oompa, who had been sitting on Hope's shoulder, bounced down her arm and onto the bed, nestling on Dom's shoulder and blending with her flame red hair. Hope left her pet to cheer her friend up, hoping that it would do a better job than she herself had managed, and, feeling saddened on what should have been a happy and joyful occasion, headed off to her own dormitory.

O

Hope continued to dwell on the problem as the term progressed. Whatever Dom said, she simply could not ignore Elodie, and sometimes it wasn't possible to avoid her, given that they shared a common room. The biting winter cold had begun to fade, giving way to longer days and brighter skies, but regular heavy rainstorms were still limiting the amount of time they were able to spend outside. Elodie was cunning, and very rarely unkind when other students were within earshot. Her comments after the quidditch match had been a first, no doubt in retaliation to Hope's challenge, and she hadn't repeated any such actions since, which meant that although her opportunities to be cruel were fewer and further between, there were never many people around to witness it.

Hope struggled with her paradoxical thoughts. Dom wanted her to leave it, but she was one of the only people who knew exactly what was going on. Even Roxanne wasn't aware of some of it. And she was Dom's friend, so as a good friend shouldn't she do everything possible to help her? Or did being a good friend mean respecting someone's wishes, even if you felt it to be wrong?

She remembered that her dad had told Dom this was not a battle she could fight all by herself. So didn't that mean that Hope was supposed fight it too? He had also said that telling a teacher was Dom's decision, but that was after Dom had said that Elodie's behaviour didn't bother her. Surely if her parents knew how bad it really was - if they knew that Elodie was making Dom so upset that she was in tears - then they would want something to be done about it.

Hope turned these questions over and over in her mind as the end of term approached, becoming more and more confused and feeling, quite frankly, like the most useless friend in the world.

**oOo**

* * *

_March_

Hope intended to talk to her parents about the issue, somehow. They were good for advice, and surely she'd be able to think of a way to ask them without directly betraying Dom's trust. But on the second day of the Easter holidays, something happened that drove all other thoughts out of her mind for several days. Passing the living room door on her way to the kitchen, she stopped short at the sound of her own name.

"…should really tell Hope as well."

"Tell me what?" She poked her head into the room. Her parents were sitting with Harry and Hermione, all four of them looking very serious. Her mother turned round to look at her and sighed.

"Hope, how many times have we told you-"

"I wasn't listening," Hope protested. "I wasn't, honestly. I just walked past and heard my name. I swear."

"OK, OK!" Her mother held up a hand. "I'm sorry love, come in. We do need to tell you something."

Hope came over and sat down next to them. The grim expressions on each of their faces was rather alarming.

"What's going on?"

It was Harry who spoke, after a half glance towards Remus and Tonks. He was never one to beat about the bush.

"Fenrir Greyback is appealing his prison sentence."

Hope felt her heartrate accelerate madly in her chest at the mere mention of the name, but she kept her face resolutely impassive.

"Appealing..." she repeated slowly, trying to remember what that meant. Appealing didn't mean anything concrete, she was sure of that.

"Azkaban prisoners are allowed to appeal a life sentence if they feel that there is new evidence to back their release, or if they believe circumstances have changed enough since their initial imprisonment to warrant re-examination of their case," Hermione said. "Greyback is claiming that his actions during the war were down to self-defence against mistreatment and cruelty, and insisting that as werewolves now have more rights and opportunities, he should be allowed a chance to benefit from them."

Hope swallowed with difficulty.

"So he'll get out of prison?"

"It's still very unlikely," Hermione said, her voice gentle. "He's a convict and no amount of rights can negate what he did. War criminals have been appealing their sentences for two decades now."

"Do they ever win?"

Her father and mother exchanged a fleeting look. Hermione clenched the fist that had been resting on the table and Harry's face hardened noticeably. "Once," he said, a muscle jumping in his jaw. "It has happened once since the war. But they were exceptional circumstances. And that person has committed no crimes since. So even if – and remember this is very, _very_ unlikely – even if Greyback gets released, that doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to do something bad."

Hope just nodded.

"Are you OK?" Tonks said to her, later on, once Harry and Hermione had gone home. "You know, if you're worried about Greyback or anything, you can talk to us."

_Yes, he's my worst fear and has been since I was six years old._

"I'm not worried!" she said, shrugging nonchalantly.

Inside, her stomach writhed like a pit of snakes.

OOO


	5. Nike

* * *

**NIKE**

_Victory_

* * *

In the end, Hope asked Teddy what she should do about Dom. She doubted that she would be able to speak to her parents without giving away what she was really talking about, and they were too close to Bill and Fleur to be willing to hide something like this from them. Dom would be furious if she found out that Hope had gone directly against her repeated plea not to tell them, but she had said nothing about speaking to Teddy.

She sought her brother out when he was in his room one evening, and explained how mean Elodie could be, how her unkind comments were getting more pointed and hurtful as time went on and how Dom seemed to be getting increasingly upset by it.

"Dom doesn't want to say anything," she finished. "And she doesn't want me to say anything either, but- but do you think I should?"

Teddy looked back at her, his brown eyes warm and quite sad.

"You know the answer to that, Dopey," he said softly. "Don't you?"

Hope swallowed hard and nodded, looking down at the floor.

"I know it's hard," Teddy said. "It is hard, if Dom has asked you not to, because it feels like a betrayal to a friend. But Hope, if you don't speak out it's possible no one will. And then things will get worse and worse. And Dom is clearly suffering, from what you've just said. As her friend you have a duty to do something, especially if no one else really knows what's going on."

"I know."

"Talk to Flitwick," Teddy finished. "Or maybe even Izatt, if you feel more comfortable talking to her. She may not be a Head of House but she definitely wouldn't stand for something like this."

Hope nodded again.

"Don't tell Mum and Dad," she added. "Or Victoire. Not yet, anyway. Swear?"

Teddy looked a little awkward but consented. Their brother-sister code was law.

**oOo**

* * *

_April_

Elodie's behaviour did not improve with the new term, and Hope tried to work up the courage to talk to a teacher about the issue. It wasn't just the thought of Dom's reaction that was making her hesitate, but also the fact that it went against the mantra that the younger Weasleys lived their life by. _We do not tell the adults. We do not grass. We do not snitch._ It was their golden rule. Even Albus and James, Dom and Victoire, most quarrelsome of siblings, did not break it.

Of course, Elodie wasn't a Weasley, and in this case telling a teacher was entirely justified, but Hope was still finding it harder than expected to bite the bullet and do it. But while she hesitated, Elodie's attitude was getting worse, and Dom was becoming quieter and more withdrawn.

Hope was dwelling so much on the problem one Friday morning in Defence Against the Dark Arts that she did not hear a word of what Izatt was telling them about The Surge. She was finally shaken out of her reverie by the sound of her own name.

"Hope Lupin, are you listening?"

Hope started and looked up at Professor Izatt, who was regarding her with one raised eyebrow.

"Yes."

_I am now anyway._

"Then perhaps you would be so kind as to answer my question."

_Crap._

"Um… could you repeat the question, Professor? Please."

Elodie and Natalie sniggered loudly. Izatt gave her a piercing look but nodded.

"I asked what new measures were put in place after The Surge, to try and prevent such events ever happening again."

Thankfully, Hope knew the answer to this. The benefit of having an Auror for a mother, not to mention one who was friends with the Minister himself. She sat up a little straighter and tried to remember as many details as possible.

"Kingsley Shacklebolt set up the MoMS just after The Surge attacks were stopped. That's the Ministry of Magical Security and it's an organisation dedicated solely to picking up signs of magical crime. The MoMS' job is to detect hints of dark magic and keep tabs on anyone arousing suspicion. And people didn't think it would help at first but now everyone agrees that King – I mean Minister Shacklebolt – did the right thing. Our communities are much safer because of it. And setting it up created about two hundred jobs for magical people at a time when employment rates were very low."

Izatt nodded.

"Fair enough, that was very nicely answered," she said, which wiped the smirk of Elodie's face at once.

Izatt did not say another word about her poor attention span, and with a renewed wave of liking for the teacher, Hope made her decision as the bell signalled the end of class.

"Everything OK Hope?" Izatt said, noticing her reluctance to follow her classmates on to their History of Magic lesson. "You seemed rather distracted today."

"Yes," Hope said. "Yes, I'm OK. I – I just wondered if I could...talk to you about something."

"Of course."

Haltingly, Hope did her best to explain about Elodie's unkind behaviour towards Dom, and how it was getting worse and how she was worried about her friend. She found that although she had prepared what she was going to say in her head, it was a lot more difficult saying it all out loud. However, Izatt responded calmly, asked a few follow-up questions, and by the end of the conversation, she was looking grim.

"Thank you for coming to me," she said at last. "I will take this forward."

As she left the classroom, Hope tried to convince herself that she had done the right thing, but she did not feel good at all. She also didn't think that she had really done an adequate job of explaining how horrible Elodie could be, how pointed her comments were, how they were always made when no one else was in earshot, how she had a knack for choosing words that tore through Dom's brave face and hit her right where it hurt.

Dom was nowhere to be seen at lunchtime, and when Hope asked Roxanne, her other friend just shrugged and said she'd been asked to stay behind and speak to Flitwick about some homework. At the end of their own Charms class, Flitwick called on Elodie to stay behind for the same reason and Hope felt even more nervous. This was definitely nothing to do with homework.

She couldn't find Dom anywhere in the grounds after classes, and in the end made her way back up to the Ravenclaw tower, catching a glimpse of a mane of bright red hair as she rounded the last staircase. Her friend was alone.

"Dom!"

Dom turned to face her. She was very pale and, for the first time in Hope's memory, did not look in the least bit pleased to see her.

"Was it you who told Flitwick?" she asked at once, as Hope reached her.

Hope knew her face would give it away anyway.

"I just-"

"Hope, I _told_ you not to say anything!"

"I was trying to help you!"

"But I asked you not to. Now all it's done is make things worse."

"But Dom-"

Right on cue, Elodie stalked past, Natalie and Marion in tow.

"Thought you'd go blabbing, did you Domfreak?" she said acidly. "You'll regret it, you know."

Dom turned a tortured face to Hope as the three of them continued upstairs, Elodie with her nose in the air, Natalie smirking and Marion looking down at her feet.

"You see!"

"Dom-"

"Just, please leave me alone for a bit." Dom hurried off up the stairs.

"Dom, wait!"

But Dom had already disappeared through the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower by the time Hope got to the top of the stairs. The door swung shut behind her.

Hope sighed and raised her hand to the eagle shaped knocker. The familiar voice spoke at once.

"I have ten or more daughters. I have less than ten daughters. I have at least one daughter. If only one of these statements is true, how many daughters do I have?"

Hope stared blankly at the knocker.

" _What_?"

The knocker repeated its question.

Why can't we just have a password like everyone else? Hope thought irritably. Ravenclaws were already known for being smart arses, they shouldn't have to prove it every time they wanted to go to bed. She was terrible at answering these anyway, and right now her head was too jumbled to think properly.

"Ten?"

Nothing happened.

"Ok, one?"

The door stayed shut.

"Two? I can go on like this for a while you know! Three? Four?"

"Hope?"

Cal appeared behind her as she reached twenty, looking amused.

"You OK?"

"Oh yes, I'm just practising my counting skills, you know."

Cal laughed, but kindly. It did not, at least, feel like he was laughing _at_ her.

"Need some help?"

She did not reply and Cal raised his own hand and knocked on the door.

"I have ten or more daughters. I have less than ten daughters. I have at least one daughter. If only one of these statements is true, how many daughters do I have?"

"I've counted to twenty," Hope said irritably. "And it's not any of them."

"Have you tried zero?"

Hope sighed as the door swung open the second the word left his mouth. Cal was lovely, of course, and she appreciated his help, but why did she always have to feel like the dunce of the house?

"It's a stupid question, don't worry," Cal said, seeing her face. "I hardly got any right in my first few years but eventually the same ones come round again, and then you know them all."

Hope did not believe this for a second, given that Cal was a prefect and top of his year, but she appreciated him trying to cheer her up.

"Have you seen Dom?" he added, looking around the common room. "I want to ask her about something."

Hope just shrugged sadly. There was not a red head in sight.

It was an unpleasant and lonely weekend. Dom went off with Roxanne and her Slytherin friends, and didn't say anything more about Hope staying away from her, but Hope felt like she didn't really deserve to join them if she had indeed made things worse, and instead did her best to get through the mountain of homework that she had been putting off since the start of term. She was greatly hindered by Oompa, who, not impressed at being kept indoors on a bright sunny day, kept bouncing around, distracting her and smearing ink all over her work. In the end, Hope gave up completely and curled up in an armchair with a book.

On the Sunday evening Dom came and found her.

"Look, I'm sorry I got annoyed," she said. "And I didn't mean for you to be by yourself this weekend, honestly. You could have stuck with us. I appreciate you looking out for me, but I truly don't believe it's helped, Hope. Elodie got a talking to and a couple of detentions, Rox heard Kirstin telling her friend about it. That's not going to stop her being mean, and if anything she'll get worse."

Hope had a feeling there was something missing here.

"But – but didn't they talk to _you_? Flitwick, I mean," she added hurriedly. She didn't want Dom to know that more teachers were involved in this. "Didn't Flitwick ask you if there was a problem?"

Dom looked shifty and stared down at her feet.

"He did, didn't he?"

"He - he did ask to see me…and asked if anyone was - was being unkind. I said Elodie had said some things," she admitted. "But that- that it was no worse than anyone else, and I was used to it."

"Dom! She is _ten times_ worse than other people. And you shouldn't be used to it."

Dom just shrugged.

"What did he say?"

"He said I should always report it if something is wrong, however mild I believe it to be."

"Well then-"

"It won't help. It hasn't helped now and it won't in future. How many times do I have to tell you?"

"Maybe it _would_ help if you were honest about it how bad it really is."

"Hope, leave it. Please leave it. I can handle it."

In total despair, Hope let the matter drop yet again.

**oOo**

* * *

_May_

Dom was proved right about Elodie getting worse. Her comments became crueller and increased in frequency. And with this, her nagging worries about Greyback, her poor performance in some of her classes, the unseasonably wet weather that was severely impacting their quidditch practice, Hope was not enjoying her summer term at Hogwarts at all.

As if she wasn't having enough trouble keeping him out of her mind, the subject of Greyback came up in one of their Defence Against the Dark Arts class.

"Professor?" Alice Johns, one of the Gryffindor girls, put up her hand towards the end of class. "Can you tell us about Fenrir Greyback?"

There was a stiff silence throughout the classroom.

Izatt cast the very briefest of glances towards Hope before replying. Hope, as usual, had forced a look of complete impassivity to mask her feelings of inner turmoil.

"Fenrir Greyback," the teacher repeated slowly. "What exactly do you want to know?"

"Well, my brother says he's being released from prison, even though he committed crimes in the war, and I -"

"There is no guarantee that he is being released from prison," Izatt said at once, her tone very calm. "He has been allowed to appeal his sentence. That is a very different matter. Most appeals since the war have _not_ resulted in the release of the prisoner."

"Yes," Alice said. "But I was wondering why they would even let him appeal in the first place. He _killed_ people!"

_And maimed their lives forever._

Hope finished the sentence in her head.

Izatt stared back at Alice seriously.

"The appeal process was brought in not long after the war," she said heavily. "Because the Minister believed - and I have to say I agree with him - that sometimes, even the most apparently clear cut of cases are not always as they seem. The Minister knew personally of a case like this. Have you heard of Sirius Black?"

Hope felt a jolt of surprise but Alice was shaking her head. Izatt continued.

"Sirius Black was an innocent man who was sent to Azkaban without a trial at the end of the first war. His case, on the face of it, could not have been clearer. But in reality he was framed for the mass murder he was convicted of. He was in Azkaban for thirteen years before managing to escape, but he tragically died in battle just two years later. His innocence was only discovered by the Ministry after his death. Had it been proven before, it may have spared his life."

Hope stared up at the teacher. She wondered if Izatt knew how closely Sirius's life had been bound with her father's, her mother's. She was even related to him herself, though distantly. Second cousin once removed. Or first cousin twice removed. Something like that. It was all very confusing.

But the cases weren't even comparable. Sirius, from everything she had heard about him, had been a great man. Greyback was pure evil.

As if reading her thoughts, Izatt had continued.

"Now, I'm not for a second claiming that Greyback is an _innocent_ man. I am merely emphasizing that sometimes it is necessary to re-examine the facts, to take other details into account. And as I just said, it is very rare for the individual to win the appeal. In fact, it has only happened once since the law was introduced, and this was on medical grounds. The appeals process is long, very thorough, and fair. We just have to hope that whatever happens at the trial, and whatever evidence is presented, the jury make the right choice in the end."

_And what if they don't?_

Hope's brain screamed the question, but she was far too proud to ask it out loud. Everyone else seemed satisfied by Izatt's little speech, and the atmosphere was cheerful as the bell sounded and everyone started packing away their books.

Hope had a feeling that Izatt was watching her intently, but she feigned obliviousness and followed her classmates into the corridor, that dead, cold, sick feeling very much reawakened in the pit of her stomach.

**oOo**

* * *

June

The weather improved eventually, giving way to perfect quidditch conditions, and even Hope's fears about Greyback could not eclipse the joy of Ravenclaw finally winning the quidditch cup, clinching it with a spectacular victory over Gryffindor - five hundred points to two hundred and ten. The party in their common room, while a little more tame than Hufflepuff's had been the previous year - they were Ravenclaws after all - lasted well into the early hours of the morning.

Hope was on the lookout for Elodie all evening, and subtly moved away, taking Dom with her, every time it looked like she might be coming near them. She was not going to let her spoil their victory this time around. Cal and several of their teammates seemed to be of similar mind, and Dom, basking in the glory of being the highest scoring chaser of the season, seemed to have a wonderful time. Nevertheless, it was a relief to see Elodie disappearing up to her dormitory at one o'clock in the morning.

"Great, now you can relax a bit," Dom said, noticing as Hope watched her depart. "I know you've been moving me away from her all night!"

Hope grinned sheepishly.

"I appreciate it," Dom said. "But honestly, I don't think anything could have ruined tonight! We _won_ , Hope! We won the cup! Even Elodie can't spoil the end of the year after this."

Hope smiled at her friend's positive attitude. But internally, she really wasn't so sure.

O

The following Sunday evening, Elodie came flouncing down the stairs from the dormitory and made towards Natalie and Marion, her eyes glinting as she noticed Hope and Dom sitting near them.

"Do you like my new skirt?" she said to the other two girls, spinning round. The skirt glowed in a sort of lightshow as she twirled.

"It's great!" Natalie said, while Marion nodded obediently. "Is that the one you ordered from Wizos?"

"Yep," Elodie smirked. "It came this morning." She threw a look over to Dom and raised her voice slightly. "I just feel so lucky that I can look _good_ in woman's clothing, you know."

Dom stared determinedly down at the cards they had been playing with, and took her turn, but Hope looked around to see who else was in the room. There was hardly anyone around, even if someone would have been willing to jump to Dom's defence. Alec Peters and his friends were laughing together about something in the corner, well out of earshot. Cal was absorbed in book at a desk by the window, clearly doing some kind of practical homework, wand aloft. Most other people were in their dormitories, or in the reading room studying for exams. Marion, she noticed, got up and mumbled something about going to the bathroom, as she always did when Elodie started being unkind.

"Well, don't you think it's nice?" Elodie came over and stood right next to Dom. "It's from the witch's section of the catalogue though, I'm afraid."

"Just go away Elodie," Dom said. "Can't you just leave me alone, for once? I don't do anything to you."

Elodie just raised an eyebrow. "You exist," she said coldly.

Hope's arm jerked involuntarily and the cards in her hands went flying everywhere.

"What do you think, Hopeless?" Elodie asked, spinning round again before she could say anything. "Don't you like it? I'll lend it to you if you like – it might even look OK on you, given that you can fit into any item of clothing you like."

Hope wasn't sure where this was going but she was certain it was nowhere good. Elodie did not pay her compliments. In fact, she didn't pay compliments to anyone, not even her so called best friends.

"It's such a shame." Elodie went on, still in her loud, pointed tone. "Such a shame that we don't all have your clever morphing gift, isn't it. _Some_ of us would probably find it so useful."

_Of course._

"Shut up Elodie!" she said in a low voice.

"I'm just saying," Elodie said, grinning maliciously at Dom. "It would be so nice for some of us. We could make things bigger. Make things smaller."

"I said, shut up!"

"…Make some things disappear altogether."

Dom jumped up and fled the room, her eyes full of tears, unable to bear it any longer.

Hope stood up and glared at Elodie, whipping her wand out and pointing it at her face.

"I'll get you for this," she snarled. "You won't get away with this for ever, you hateful little cow. I'll make sure of-"

"Girls!"

Hope looked up to see Cal watching them, an expression of irritation on his face. "People are trying to study," he said shortly. "Hope, put that away, you know the rules."

Hope felt a surge of annoyance for the boy who she was usually so fond of, as she stowed her wand back in her robes and began clearing up the cards from the table and the floor where she had scattered them. There was a massive study room if you wanted to work. And why hadn't he stepped in ten minutes earlier? Was Dom right? Was everyone just going to ignore this completely and pretend it wasn't an issue?

O

Hope did not see Dom the next morning. She was not at breakfast and did not come into the common room at all. Hope agonised about what to do. She should tell someone, properly tell them what was going on. Everyone would think so. Her parents. Teddy. Her godparents. She tried to imagine Bill and Fleur's sadness and dismay if they knew how their daughter was being treated. This was far, far past the point of acceptable or ignorable now.

She wondered if she should ask Roxanne for advice. But that felt like a betrayal in itself, when Roxanne was Dom's closest friend. Roxanne already made sure that no one dared say anything to Dom when they were outside their common room. It should be her own job – Hope felt – to make sure Dom was OK when Roxanne wasn't around. And she was failing miserably. She also had a feeling that if she told Roxanne, then she and her Slytherin gang would just go and punch Elodie into a piece of pulp. And, as much as that would bring her savage pleasure, making Elodie a victim was surely not going to do them any favours right now.

She supposed she would just have to go and see Professor Flitwick after class, make it very clear that it was not "just a few comments," as Dom had implied, and hope that Elodie didn't get away with it for a second time and that Dom didn't stay too angry at her.

Hope was dwelling on the problem in Transfiguration, completely failing at transforming her hairbrush into a hedgehog, when a seventh year Hufflepuff prefect put their head round the door.

"Please could Elodie Carmichael go and see Professor Flitwick?"

A large " _Oooooohhh_ " went round the class. Probably led by Alec Peters, Hope thought irritably. He had the mental age of a four-year-old.

"Settle down," Professor Calvert sighed. "Of you go Miss Carmichael. Leave your things and come back when you're done."

But Elodie did not return before the end of class, and it was Marion and Natalie who ended up packing her stuff away. Hope wondered about it as she headed up to the common room that lunchtime. Could Dom have told Flitwick about Elodie, finally? She was deep in thought when she heard an excitable squeal from a nearby portrait.

"Miss Hope!"

Hope turned in surprise and then grinned delightedly.

"Oh hey!"

The painting was her very favourite in the whole castle. She loved this picture, the backdrop of which showed a field of deer grazing peacefully against a bright blue sky, with a white snowy owl perched on the antlers of a majestic stag. She knew it had been painted by Luna Lovegood and enchanted by Hermione not long after the war. A copy of it hung in the Potters' sitting room, but its original, Harry had insisted, should remain in the Hogwarts castle, a memento to one of the smallest but greatest heroes of the second war. Its main inhabitant spent most of the term time down in the kitchens chattering away to his old work companions, or else making friends in other paintings around the school. He did pop back over to his other portrait to chat to his old hero from time to time, but he was very rarely in his own painting on this staircase.

"I don't normally see you here, Dobby!"

"I was looking out for you, Miss!" The elf grinned up at her.

"Me?" Hope said curiously. "Why were you looking out for me?"

"Because I is seeing you Miss, earlier, when I is visiting the Feast of the Five Hundred in Professor Flitwick's office!"

"You saw _me_?" Hope was completely bewildered.

"Yes Miss. Not at first, but I is in there and a girl is coming to see Flitwick. That girl you is not liking at all!"

"Elodie?" Hope said. "Wait! You were there when Elodie was summoned to see Flitwick?"

_Well this is a stroke of luck. Probably the only person who would be willing to tell me what happened and he was right there._

Dobby nodded, his oil paint ears flapping. "She is in biggg trouble, Miss Hope!"

"She is _?"_

"For bullying."

_Bullying_?

So Dom _had_ told someone.

"What happened Dobby?" she asked urgently. "I know you're not supposed to talk about things you see from other paintings, but it's important. Please tell me!"

"Dobby is a free elf Miss, even in a painting," Dobby grinned up at her. But then he looked more sombre.

"She comes in and Flitwick is looking most angry. But he is not shouting, he is asking Elodie if she has anything she is wanting to own up to."

"And – and did she?"

"No Miss. She is saying that she is not knowing what Flitwick is talking about. But he is asking again. He is asking her to be truthful, and saying that there is evidence that she is been unkind, that she is been bullying. But Elodie is saying that is all rubbish, that people is making it up just because they is not liking her. That she is the one being bullied. And then."

Dobby lowered his voice, even though there was still no one around.

"Flitwick is looking even more angry and he is tapping his wand, and showing her. A ball – a ball that is making a moving picture in the air. And that is when I is seeing you. You and Miss Weezy and nasty Elodie. And she is saying horrible things!"

Last night, Hope realised. The dreadful scene in the common room.

"That was last night," she said. "But how did he get that?"

Dobby shook his head earnestly.

"I is not knowing Miss, but he is very angry. He is saying that it is unacceptable, and bullying is never to be tolerated at Hogwarts, and then he is taking her to the Head."

"To Professor Vector?"

Dobby nodded again. "And of course, I is not allowed up there, but Snidgy is there now, to see if he can find out what is happening!"

Snidgy was the tiny golden snidget from a few paintings along, also capable of human speech, who was able to visit the portrait of Brandon Wright, twin brother of Bowman Wright and former headmaster, which hung in the Headmistress's office.

Right on cue, the tiny golden bird came twittering into view.

"She's in serious trouble," he chirped brightly to Dobby. "Vector was furious too. Said she would have detention until the end of the year and that if it happened again then she would be _expelled_. And Elodie cried a lot but they weren't sympathetic. Just said that she had been warned already and that she should have thought about other people if she didn't want to feel this way now."

Hope looked round at the sound of other people coming up the stairs towards them.

"Thanks for telling me this, Dobby!" she said gratefully, hurrying on her way. "Honest, it's so good to know."

"Goodbye Miss!" Dobby called after her. "I is hoping to be seeing you soon."

Elodie herself came through the entrance to the common room not long after, her eyes very red. She rushed straight up to the dormitory.

After half an hour or so Dom came in too and made a beeline for where Hope was sitting. She looked very tired and there were dark circles under her eyes.

"Flitwick had a long chat with me," she said, without preamble, sitting down next to Hope. "And Vector. They said they did understand why I hadn't said anything before, that they knew it was difficult, doubly so because most people can't possibly understand what it's like to be in my position, but that it was so important that I was honest about it, because if they knew about it they would do everything they could to stop it happening. And they assured me Elodie would be severely punished."

"I'm so glad you told them, in the end," Hope said warmly. Dom looked confused, staring back at her.

"But I didn't tell them," she said slowly. "I thought you must have done."

Hope shook her head. "I wanted to," she blurted out. "I was thinking about talking to Flitwick after Charms, but I was scared, after what happened last time, and - and anyway, it was only in our second lesson that Elodie got called out."

"So – so who did tell him?"

Hope shrugged.

"I don't know, but it's hardly a secret that she's a nightmare. I guess not everyone is willing to just ignore it."

Dom smiled wanly.

"I guess. I'd better go and get my potions stuff."

"Dom! Hope!"

They looked round to see their quidditch captain coming towards them.

Cal, Hope realised. Of _course_ it had been Cal. He had had his wand out, seemingly absorbed in his homework. Somehow he'd managed to capture everything. He must have gone to Flitwick first thing that morning. Dom didn't seem to have noticed anything and was just looking at him questioningly. But then Dom had been seated with her back to him last night, probably hadn't seen him at all.

"I think I've worked out that new move we were talking about," Cal said, as he reached them. "We can practice it tomorrow night. And," he looked over at Dom. "Flitwick's given me permission to make you Vice Captain for next year. I know that's not the norm, but there's no point pretending that anyone else is going to be captain when I leave. I asked him about it this morning."

"Vice Captain?" Dom's face lit up and Cal nodded.

"Yep, it will be great because you can get a chance leading practice and everything, and together we'll train up a full team of reserves so that the main team isn't too shaken up when most of us leave in a years' time."

Dom was beaming. "I can't wait," she said. "I've got to go to class now, but we can chat about it later."

She rushed off. Hope, however, stared up at Cal.

"What?"

"That's not all you went to Flitwick about, is it?"

Cal looked round to check that Dom was out of earshot.

"No," he admitted. "Is she ok?"

"Seems OK – ish. And Elodie's in big trouble. How did you do it though? The picture of it?"

"You heard about that?"

"Err... sort of," Hope said. She didn't want to get Dobby into trouble. "Was it a spell?"

He nodded. "I know you'd already tried to go to the teachers. But she's a slippery one. And Dom just wouldn't have said what was really going on. I wanted there to be evidence. Something that they literally couldn't pretend hadn't happened. So I used an external memory preserving charm last night, and showed it to Flitwick this morning."

Hope was staring at him in admiration.

"I wish I'd thought of that!"

"It's a very advanced spell, Hope," he said kindly. "And you've been trying to stick up for her all term. I wish I'd done more sooner, really I do, but like I said, Elodie's slippery – she gets her way out of everything. And I'm sorry I stopped you smashing her face in last night. I would have loved you to, believe me, but I thought it might hurt the cause a little."

Hope just grinned. "Well, if she tries it again I will be smashing her face in," she said grimly.

Cal just raised an eyebrow.

"Save it for the quidditch pitch," he said. "We're retaining our title next year, Hope. Make no mistake!"

O

Elodie, it seemed, had finally learnt her lesson, and went nowhere near either of them for the remainder of term. The weather was glorious for the last few weeks, and Hope and Dom spent as much time as possible outside, sitting by the lake with Roxanne, going for walks around the grounds, or else down at the quidditch pitch, keeping up their practice while they were still able to train on a full sized pitch. Cal's appointment of Dom as Vice Captain for the next year was met by enthusiasm from the rest of the team, and Dom's confidence began to recover, little by little each day.

Overall, it was a great end to the year, although saying goodbye to Professor Izatt was a low point.

"It has been an absolute pleasure teaching you all, these last two years," she said, looking round at them. "I have confidence that whoever takes my place will be teaching a fine young bunch of students, and that you will do them proud, do me proud, and above all, do yourselves proud."

Hope felt sad as she packed her books away. She was pretty sure that no teacher was ever going to be as good as Izatt.

**oOo**

* * *

_July_

"Pst!" James beckoned to Hope, one summer afternoon when they were round at the Potters'. He was standing near the window of his bedroom, Al right next to him. The window looked out onto the front garden, where the adults were currently sitting together, conversing in low voices. "They're talking about the new defence teacher. I know we're not supposed to know but if they insist on talking about it in extendable earshot, what do they expect? Want to hear?"

Hope scurried over at once and grabbed one of the flesh-coloured strings trailing from the crack in the top window. She heard Harry's voice as she put it in her ear.

"…done a bit of admin work for the Auror office over the years. And she applied when she heard that Professor Izatt was leaving."

"Surely they could have found better than _her_ ," Ron moaned.

Hope heard Harry sigh.

"There's still almost no demand for the job – even after all these years the jinx rumour still holds. She had barely any competition."

"Our fifth year was a long time ago, remember." Hermione's voice held a note of reprimand. "We were just kids then, and everything's different now."

"Hmpff," was Ron's only reply.

"She's not had an easy time of it, you know," Hermione went on, more sharply. "She lost her mother and her sister in the war, and her partner of five years was killed in The Surge. She hasn't been with anyone since then."

"Well, if you hadn't scarred her face for life maybe she would have," Ron mumbled, but then he amended himself hastily. Hope could just imagine Hermione giving him one of her most pointed glares. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. That's awful, poor woman. And I suppose you're right. It's hardly fair to hold a grudge against her for something that happened twenty years ago. It was all Um-Bitch's fault anyway."

"How come Ron is always allowed to say rude words and I'm not," Hope hissed indignantly.

Harry spoke next.

"I don't care what happened at school, and I feel terrible for what she's had to go through, but from what I know of her I'm not convinced she's a suitable choice. She's erratic and inconsistent, definitely not a people person and I just can't imagine her being good with the students. She isn't even that clued up on the subject itself. And defence is _so_ important. The Auror department has only just recovered its numbers from the years of terrible defence teachers that Hogwarts had for nearly three decades. With exceptions of course…I still wish you'd applied this time, Remus. You'd have got it for certain."

Hope heard her own father speaking, his tone a little heavy.

"I know, Harry. And I was tempted, you know I was. But I truly feel that my time at Hogwarts has passed. I'm finally in a job I love, and I would be crazy to give that up now. I would have barely seen Dora at all in the term time, with all her irregular shifts, and I'm not sure Hope would have liked it, despite what she said to the contrary. And there's still the issue of what happened last time. A lot of parents won't have forgotten that, and I can't say I blame them."

"I would have _loved_ Remus to be our teacher!" Al said sadly. Hope felt a little stab of pride as she smiled at him. Yet another thing she would never have admitted out loud, but she secretly loved how much the Weasleys and the aPotters adored her mother and father. Because although they were surrogate aunt and uncle to all the family, and godparents to Dom and to Lily, only she and Teddy could call them _Mum and Dad_.

As for whether she wished that her dad had applied for the job himself - she supposed it would all depend on what this mysterious new woman was like.

**oOo**

* * *

_September_

By the end of the second week of her third year, Hope had made up her mind. She would have most certainly preferred to be taught by her own father than by Professor Marietta Edgecombe.

It wasn't that the woman was a _bad_ teacher. Hope wasn't even sure that she agreed with Harry's description of her as inconsistent. Her teaching method was _too_ consistent for Hope's liking. Every lesson was of a very similar format, unlike Izatt's, which had varied from one day to the next. With every new topic they were asked to research the subject in advance and summarise it in one hundred words. A student would then be asked to read theirs out to the class as an introduction. Edgecombe would talk about the subject while they took notes, and then there would be a class discussion towards the end of the lesson. Every second or third class was a practical one, with different groups of students demonstrating their skills at any one time.

Hope had always enjoyed defence classes, and she was still learning new things. But Edgecombe just didn't have Izatt's power to captivate the students' attention with a simple speech. She didn't have the old teacher's steady, no nonsense approach, nor her ability to liven up the duller lessons with amusing comments or fun, unexpected activities. Half the time, she didn't have a handle on the class at all - Roxanne had already recounted with glee how Morella Flint had got into a fight with Kirstin Carmichael right under the new professor's nose, without her being able to stop it.

Most bizarrely of all, she also seemed to have a problem with Hope herself. Hope had noticed this during the very first lesson, as the teacher took the register, stumbled over the name _Hope Lupin_ , looked towards her with an odd, almost trance-like expression on her face, her cheeks paling very slightly. She had held Hope's gaze for the briefest of seconds, before apparently remembering where she was, shaking her head and continuing briskly with the register.

The moment had passed, and Hope wondered if it had been coincidence. But throughout that first lesson and those that followed, she became more and more certain that it was not coincidence, and nor was it her imagination. Professor Edgecombe, for whatever reason, did not like her at all.

**oOo**

* * *

_December_

Edgecombe's attitude continued to baffle Hope as the weeks wore on. On further reflection, it didn't seem to be quite as simple as outright dislike, and a lot of the time the teacher treated her the same as any other student. Other times, however, Hope was subjected to snappy and irate comments, and a lack of patience and frosty demeanour that she was quite certain was directed at her personally, and not at her peers. The odd moods seemed to thaw a little towards the middle of term, but returned with a vengeance in the run up to the Christmas holidays. Hope, finally seeing what Harry had meant by _inconsistent_ , was thoroughly fed up with her new teacher by the end of term.

"…and I just don't think she likes me at all!" she finished indignantly, during a Christmas holiday meet up with the Potters, Ron and Hermione, as they sat waiting for Harry and Tonks to get off shift before they ate dinner. Ron had asked about defence lessons and Hope had wasted no time in giving her opinion on the new teacher.

"Well, do you behave in her classes?" The question was from Hermione, of course.

"Of course I behave!"

Remus coughed but didn't say anything else.

"I do!" She glared at her father. "As much as anyone else does, anyway! She treats me differently. Really weird and - and... I can't explain it. But she definitely has some kind of problem with me."

Remus smiled slightly.

"I remember her vaguely from when I taught at Hogwarts," he said. "She wasn't the friendliest of students, either. I doubt it's anything personal, Hope. She probably is the same with everyone. It's human nature to take more notice of someone's attitude when it's directed at oneself."

Hope was not convinced.

"But she definitely tells me off more than other people! And sometimes I say perfectly normal things and she gets all weird and snappy with me."

"Well, I wouldn't expect her to like anyone related to the Weasleys," Ron chuckled.

"But I'm not even an official Weasley!"

"You look like one though!" Albus said. "Actually, you kind of look like Edgecombe a bit, when you wear your hair like that. Except you're much prettier than she is, obviously," he added hastily, as Hope looked rather put out.

James sniggered. "Al fancies Hooppe. Al fancies Hooppe."

"I don't fancy Hope!" Albus looked furious. "I don't. _Mum_!"

Ginny sighed heavily.

"James, for goodness sake, act your age!"

"Al's actually right though," Ron said thoughtfully, looking over at Hope, as James's taunts subsided. "You do look a bit similar when you have your hair all red and curly, especially to how she looked when she was at school with us. Maybe she's just jealous that you can change your appearance, look however you want, never have any spots or scars..."

"Why would she be jealous of that?"

Hermione, however, had gone very pink and forcefully changed the subject. Hope remembered Ron saying something in the conversation she shouldn't have heard about Hermione scarring Edgecombe's face. There was a story there somewhere, but she knew better than to ask about that.

**oOo**

* * *

_January_

It was the Sunday before going back to school for the second term that the news came. Teddy was in France with Victoire's family, Remus and Tonks were discussing some article from the Daily Prophet and Hope was sitting reading a book by the fire, when it turned bright green and Harry stumbled out of it, still in his work robes and looking serious.

"What's up?" Tonks said urgently, already on her feet. "Do I need to come in?"

"No," Harry said at once. "Not that. Sorry I didn't give you warning I was coming. I have to get back in a minute. I just…I have some news, and I wanted to tell you in person. You-" he looked at her gently, "you might want to sit back down."

He was looking sad, apologetic, his eyes on Remus in particular. He glanced quickly at Hope as well, but did not ask her to leave the room. Then he took a deep breath and turned back to his friends.

"Fenrir Greyback won his appeal."

A lead weight dropped into Hope's stomach. Harry's voice was suddenly coming from very far away.

"It was close," Harry said. His face was hard. "Very close. But the new werewolf protection rules swung it for him in the end, and they agreed he should be given a second chance at a normal life. Hermione is livid. She didn't spend years campaigning for those rights only for them to get Greyback off the hook, not when he's responsible for ten percent of werewolves alive in Britain today. And he'll be on parole, of course, closely monitored. They'll supply him with wolfsbane and everything. But he did win, and they'll be deciding on his release date next week. I-" his voice caught a little as he looked at Remus, who was staring blankly into the now dying embers of the fire. "I'm so sorry."

**OOO**


	6. Artemis

* * *

**ARTEMIS**

_Moon_

* * *

"Mum?"

Hope wandered into the kitchen. Her mother and father had been having a serious discussion, Remus sitting with his face in his hands and Tonks speaking softly to him. Hope had only seen her parents look like this once before, after the death of an old friend, and knew it to be a sign that they really should be left alone.

But the news from earlier had overwhelmed her with fear and the mere thought of going upstairs to her room all by herself was terrifying. If Teddy had been there, she would have talked to him. But he wasn't.

"When will Greyback come out of prison?"

"Can we talk about this in the morning please Hope?" Tonks looked across at her with a small, sad smile. "It's late."

"But I'm going back to school in the morning," Hope protested. "It'll be busy, it always is."

"We will make time to talk to you, I promise," Tonks said. "But you need to give us a moment now."

"But-"

"Hope, please do as I say, and go up to bed." There was an edge to her mother's voice that told her she was pushing her luck. She knew, just _knew_ , that if she told her parents the truth, that the thought of the monster who had maimed her father's life had always been her worst fear in the world, then their attitude would be different. She knew it would take only the simplest of admissions to get her parents' undivided attention, their reassurance and their sympathy, to get them to talk to her and comfort her for as long as she needed. Because they put her and Teddy before themselves, and they always had done.

_But I'm too scared to go to bed and I'm so afraid that Greyback will come and attack you and I want to make sure you'll be safe._

The words didn't come. Hope didn't like admitting things like that. Her don't care attitude and bright-eyed expression was the armour behind which her weaknesses – or so she felt they were – dwelled, never allowed to see the light of day. And she had pretended, even since the news of Greyback's trial, that he didn't bother her at all. So how were her parents supposed to know how truly worried about him she was?

She should just do as she was told and go upstairs and talk to her parents in the morning. Go upstairs and get into bed. And turn off the light.

_Where Greyback may be lurking in the shadows._

"But I'm not tired," she persisted.

"Then go and read a book. I won't ask you again."

"But I just want to know one tiny thing," she said, aware that she sounded sulky, but still unable to say what was really on her mind. "It's not going to take long."

"Hope, will you just _go_ upstairs and leave us alone." Hope reeled a little at the uncharacteristic harshness in her father's voice. She was used to her mother getting irritable from time to time, fleeting bursts of anger that fizzled out within minutes. But her dad was different. He was always calm, mellow and steady. He could be stern and serious, but she couldn't remember him getting properly angry since that horrible incident in the cellar six years ago. And he had _never_ snapped at her like that before, all hard and cold.

He was looking round at her now, and she could tell he already felt guilty. He reached out a hand placatingly.

"Listen-"

Hope just turned away without a word, left the kitchen and stumped upstairs. She buried herself under her duvet and tried to banish all thoughts of werewolves and monsters, but every time she shut her eyes she saw a flash of jaws, a splatter of blood, a pale, lifeless body.

"Hope?"

Her father had come into the room. Hope did not come out from under her duvet.

"Hope, I'm sorry." She felt a slight pressure through the duvet as he put his hand on the lump that was her curled up form. He must know that she was awake. "I didn't mean to snap at you. I really didn't. This news has been a shock. But it's not fair to take it out on you."

Hope refused to reply. She heard him sigh.

"We'll talk in the morning."

O

_Dear Hope,_

_I'm so sorry about how we left things before you went back to school. I truly didn't mean to seem angry with you. The news took me by surprise and I didn't handle it well._

_We'll have a proper talk about things when we next see you._

_Please write back if you need anything._

_I love you._

_Dad_

Hope was not particularly enjoying the new term. She felt guilty about how she had left things with her parents, her dad in particular, refusing to let him hug her properly when he'd dropped her at the station, and not even going over to the window to wave once she'd boarded the train. And although she had written a couple of brief updates to her parents and Teddy in general, she had not responded to his individual letters at all.

Nightmares about Greyback started to plague her, and several nights a week, particularly as the full moon approached, she would wake up drenched in sweat from some awful dream. Her lack of concentration, not to mention sleep, was even starting to impact on her flying, and although Cal and Dom were both being patient, the feeling of letting her teammates down was not helping in the slightest.

To make matters worse, a few weeks into term Edgecombe announced that their next topic would be werewolves. They were, as usual, to do a bit of research on the subject and write a hundred word summary ready for the next class.

Elodie, who had been fairly quiet for a while now, no doubt due to her close call with expulsion the previous year, was cackling as they packed away their bags. She always took liberties in Edgecombe's classes, on the basis that the teacher liked her and rarely reprimanded her.

"Some of us could probably skip this module all together," she said to Natalie, who laughed loudly as well. "What do you say, Lupin? You've had a lifetime of first-hand study on the topic, haven't you?"

"You've had a lifetime's experience of being a slimy maggot, but you still had to study flobberworms last week," Hope retorted.

She was heartened when there was a ripple of laughter from the students who had been within earshot, and Elodie marched out of the room with her nose in the air. It was difficult to get one over on Elodie.

But a few days later, writing her homework, Hope didn't feel cheerful at all. How on earth was she supposed to summarise the condition that had plagued her father's life, distorted her family's world, and haunted her nightmares for weeks now, in just one hundred words?

In the end, knowing that Edgecombe would not approve, she ignored the books and wrote what she felt needed to be said.

**oOo**

* * *

_February_

"Settle down!" Professor Edgecombe looked round the class. "We're already late starting so let's get on with it please. As Lennox and Longbottom are absent… " she scanned the register briefly. "Lupin… please read out your summary to get us started."

_No, no, no._

Hope swore silently to herself. She had calculated. She had made _sure_ that it wouldn't be her turn. But she hadn't factored in Marion getting wacked on the nose by a bashing begonia in Herbology and Michael, on Neville's orders, being the one to accompany her to the hospital wing. Elodie and Nathalie had offered to take her, of course, but Hope suspected that Neville didn't trust the pair of them any more than she did.

"Miss Lupin?" Edgecombe sounded impatient as she hesitated.

" _I'll_ read it out professor," Elodie piped up from the neighbouring desk, and for a second Hope felt completely bewildered. Was Elodie being _nice_ for once and trying to spare her feelings? Then she realised that Elodie had no intention of reading her own summary and was trying to snatch the parchment from Hope's desk.

"That won't be necessary Miss Carmichael," their teacher replied. "But Miss Lupin, we don't have all day and we are already behind schedule."

"But Professor, I can't."

The woman eyed her frostily.

"Have you done the homework?"

" _Yes_."

"Then you will read it out to us. You know the rules of this class, Miss Lupin, and you are not exempt from them, however much your friends and family think they own this school."

Stung by the injustice of this, Hope snatched her parchment, tossed back her hair and read out.

" _Fenrir Greyback is a werewolf. He is an evil, dangerous man and he deserved to die in the war for everything he did. He attacks innocent people, whether it is on the full moon or not. He has caused terrible pain and suffering and he should still be rotting in prison._

_Remus Lupin is also werewolf. He is kind and good and brave. He fought in the wizarding wars and saved people's lives and he got an Order of Merlin, first class. Remus Lupin takes Wolfsbane potion every full moon and he is never dangerous. He has never attacked anyone._

_Werewolves are all different. Just like other human beings are. You should never judge one person based on the actions of someone else."_

A heavy silence fell over the classroom following her speech. She glared back at her professor, expecting to see fury at her blatant disregard of the homework brief, but there was a different expression there. She couldn't quite make out what it was, but it definitely wasn't anger.

"Thank you, Miss Lupin, you can sit down."

Feeling relieved, Hope sank back into her chair, but Elodie, as always, was unable to keep her mouth shut.

"Nice story Lupin, but aren't you forgetting something? Aren't you forgetting how the _good_ werewolf once didn't take his wolfsbane and nearly killed some of his own students?"

Hope's blood ran cold. She knew the story. Her parents had told her about it long ago. She had not expected anyone else to know, but then Edgecombe would, having been taught by her father, and of course Elodie would know too. Her mother had had been in the same year as Harry, Ron and Hermione, in Slytherin. And the reason that her dad had been forced to leave his job was that some horrible, slimy professor called Snape had told the whole of Slytherin house that he was a werewolf.

She just swore under her breath at Elodie, unable to think of a suitably smart reply.

Edgecombe cleared her throat loudly but Elodie ignored her. "So much for not being dangerous. You know," she raised her voice so that everyone in the room could hear. "My mother says that werewolves should never have been allowed to breed at all."

"Miss Carmichael-"

"It should be a crime that you were even born, Lupin."

"Miss Carmichael be quiet now, or you will be going straight to Professor Vector with a week's worth of detentions." Edgecombe's voice was harsh. "Those kind of prejudiced views are not tolerated at Hogwarts, and you know that fine well. I believe you have been warned about this before."

Elodie, clearly not expecting this from a teacher who normally treated her with favoured liking, glowered down at her desk, and the tense atmosphere in the room was interrupted by the reappearance of Michael and Marion. Marion's nose was reduced back to its normal size and Michael was smiling cheerfully as he always did.

Great, Hope thought bitterly. Only five minutes too late.

**oOo**

* * *

_March_

Things did not improve over the next few weeks. They lost their second match against Gryffindor, for which Hope felt responsible, although Cal and Dom both assured her separately that a few extra goals would not have made much difference. Rowan, suffering from some kind of flu, had played dreadfully, and with no decent reserve seeker, the game had been a non-starter.

"We're still in with a chance!" Cal assured them. "Our first match has given us some leeway, and Slytherin have lost a few decent players this year. They're struggling to get up to form. We just need to thrash them after Easter and we'll be fine."

"Are you OK at the moment?" Dom asked, as Cal walked away. "You seem really down."

Hope just shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. "I just –"

She thought of the three unanswered letters that sat in the drawer by her bed and her stomach gave a guilty squirm.

"I wish I'd written to Dad more," she blurted out. "I haven't really all term."

"You don't write many letters home anyway, though, do you?" Dom said, smiling slightly. "He's probably used to it. And anyway, you'll see him soon, at Easter!"

She shook her head. "I'm not going home for Easter."

"You're not?" Dom stared at her in shock. "But you always do! We always do."

"I've just got work to catch up on, that's all."

Dom clearly did not believe this, for which Hope couldn't blame her. When had she ever shown the slightest interest in working harder than was strictly necessary?

"Hope, what's going on?"

Dom was looking sympathetic, and Hope explained, haltingly, although she omitted some of the details, how she had left things with her parents, particularly her dad, in January, and how she hadn't responded to his letters.

"Hope, your dad won't still be angry with you," Dom said at once. "I doubt he was even angry in the first place. I've never seen your dad get angry. You know he'd want to see you at Easter."

Which was precisely the point, Hope thought. He _had_ been angry with her. And if she had done the decent thing and accepted his apology everything would have been fine. But after her cold, indifferent attitude, she couldn't imagine that he'd want to see her at Easter at all.

O

During their final Defence class of the term, Hope wasn't listening to Alec Peter's summary about boggarts.

She was thinking of the letter up in her dormitory.

_Dopey,_

_Are you sure you won't come home for Easter, even just for a few days? Victoire says the other Weasleys are. I know you didn't end the holidays on great terms with Mum and Dad but it really shouldn't become a big thing. They've missed you this term and they would love to see you._

_And the full moon is Friday, remember. It would definitely cheer Dad up if you were here the next day._

_Let me know. If you do, I'll come pick you up at the station. I can always take you back up to Hogsmeade myself after a week or so if you don't want to stay the whole time._

_T xxx_

Hope wanted to go home, desperately. More than she ever had before. The thought of staying in a half empty castle without all the other Weasleys was very depressing. But pride and shame had so far prevented her from replying to Teddy's letter of two days previously.

Edgecombe's voice filtered through her thoughts and she jerked out of her daze.

"…Johns, Lennox, Longbottom and Lupin. This will be our last practical of the term of course, but I'll make sure everyone has had an equal number by the end of the year. If we have some time at the end and the boggart is still standing, then Okare and Peters might get a chance as well."

Hope's attention was very much returned to the situation now. Edgecombe had got to be joking. She wanted them to fight a Boggart? In front of the whole class?

Lyn, Alice, Marion and Michael had already got to their feet, looking eager, but Hope stayed put. She felt the blood leaving her cheeks but forced it back with a morph.

"Scared, Hopeless?" Elodie sniggered, seeing that she hadn't moved.

Hope would take even Elodie's taunts if it meant she didn't have to witness her worst fear in front of her classmates. She took a deep breath and addressed the teacher politely.

"Professor, please can I be excused from the practical?"

The teacher sighed in irritation.

"Why should you be excused?"

"I just - I don't want to have to do it."

"Well, we all have to do things we don't want to do from time to time."

"But-"

"I've told you before that you are not exempt from the rules of this classroom. Now come up to the front."

Hope got up shakily and took her place behind Michael. She watched, heart thumping, as her other four classmates successfully transfigured the boggart into amusing parodies of their worst fear. How on earth was she supposed to make _her_ worst fear funny?

Perhaps I can pretend I'm afraid of something else, spiders or something, she thought wildly, as Michael's boggart showed him drowning, only to be rescued half a minute later by a friendly looking octopus, which threw him cheerfully into the air as a dad might throw a young baby. The class all laughed and the boggart seemed to pause. But it did not hesitate further as Hope stepped forward, and it knew that she was not afraid of spiders.

The scene appeared, terrifyingly lifelike, before her eyes, as the laughter brought on by Michael's boggart died away. Her mother and Teddy lay before her, in a pool of their own blood. Their eyes were wide and staring. Next to them, her father, still alive, gasped for breath. But a wound gaped open on the side of his neck.

Hope's hand shook violently as she pointed her wand. Nothing remotely amusing came to mind. " _Riddikulus_."

Nothing happened.

" _Riddikulus_!" The incantation was louder this time. There was a loud crack.

The scene changed. This time her dad lay lifeless on the ground. Her mum shook his shoulders ineffectually, tears running down her cheeks as she tried to revive him. To no avail.

" _Riddikulus_."

Blood poured from three slashes on Teddy's neck while both his parents stood there helplessly.

Hope took a step backwards, trying to focus her vision and stop the room spinning around her. She took a deep breath and pointed her wand again. And then several things happened at once. Michael, who had been watching in horror, stepped towards her, his own wand out. And then Professor Edgecombe strode forward too, but as Hope cried _Riddikulus_ for the fourth time, the scene changed, and this time the spell seemed to have worked, even though Hope had had no particular vision in mind. Her parents stood there, holding a baby. That baby, with wide blue eyes and a tuft of scarlet hair, was surely her. They were both looking down at the bundle of blankets with identical, loving expressions on their faces. Her mother's eyes were filled with tears of joy. Teddy – presumably seven years of age, if the baby was her – bounced up and down on the balls of his feet to try and look too, and her mother lowered the baby gently to his eye level.

Hope didn't really have time to process what she was seeing before her professor gave the harsh command of the spell and the boggart exploded completely.

Hope stared over at Edgecombe, expecting to see irritation that she had not been able to tackle the boggart efficiently. But there was a different emotion there, something very deep and soulful. Was it pity? Regret? Guilt? She had no idea at all. Everything had just happened so fast.

Everyone was very quiet, most people avoiding Hope's eye, except Michael, who was still standing right next to her and patted her on the arm sympathetically. She felt a rush of affection for him. Then Elodie's smug tones broke the silence.

"So was it your dad that did that Lupin? I thought he was _good_ and _brave_ and never attacked anyone."

"Miss Carmichael, kindly-"

The teacher's sentence was cut off. Fury building up in her, Hope snatched a large bottle of ink from the front desk, next to which she had been standing, and threw it as hard as she could across the room. Her aim was true – skilled chaser as she was – and hit Elodie square in the face. Ink exploded everywhere and Elodie screamed in pain.

"Hope Lupin!" Whatever expression had previously been on her teacher's face, there was no mistaking the anger now. "How dare you behave like that!"

"She started it," Hope exclaimed. "Didn't you hear what she said?"

"Nothing excuses violence," Edgecombe said coolly. She strode over to Elodie to assess the damage, waving her wand and muttering. Within thirty seconds the ink was cleaned up. Elodie had a large lump on her head but seemed otherwise OK, despite the tears still pouring down her cheeks.

"We'll get you checked over by the nurse," Edgecombe sighed. "As for you, Lupin…"

Hope watched sullenly as the teacher waved her wand at a piece of parchment on her desk. Text appeared on it instantly and it curled itself into a scroll. "I'd like you to go and see Professor Flitwick, please. You are to take him this."

Hope knew only too well that arguing was not going to help, but the injustice of it was making her blood boil. She had been forced to witness a horrific scene in front of her classmates, been mocked openly for it, and yet _she_ was the one being punished?

"This is so unfair," she raged, snatching the parchment and stamping over to her desk to retrieve her bag. She shoved her book in it with a thump. "You didn't make Elodie fight the stupid damn thing. And now she gets to humiliate me and just sit there all smug, while _I_ get punished?"

"I didn't throw an ink bottle at your head, though did I, you stupid cow," Elodie shot back, still rubbing her forehead. Hope felt grim satisfaction to see the egg-shaped lump getting bigger as they spoke. "You could have killed me."

"Miss Carmichael, I would advise you to keep your mouth shut," Edgecombe said sharply, as the class watched, agog. "Or you will be going to see Professor Flitwick as well."

"Even if I had it would hardly be a loss would it?" Hope snarled at Elodie, as Edgecombe tried to escort her out into the room. She threw off her teacher's hand. "You've got some nerve saying that it's a crime that _my_ dad had kids. If your parents had known what an evil bitch you were going to turn out to be, they'd probably never have had you in the first place."

" _Hope Lupin! Get out of my classroom._ " Professor Edgecombe looked even more furious. Her face had gone very white. "As you clearly can't be trusted to act your age, you are to go across the hall to the staffroom and give that letter to whichever teacher is there, so that they can escort you to Professor Flitwick in person. And if no one is there you will wait until I come to you. Do you understand me?"

Hope didn't reply, just turned on her heel and stormed off towards the staffroom.

O

The staffroom was empty. Hope slammed her bag on the floor and slumped into a chair at the end of the table, shaking slightly.

She uncurled the parchment she had been given and scanned the text. If she was to give this to a teacher she was determined to know what it said. It explained how she had lashed out at Elodie and could have seriously injured her. It stated that Hope would be given a long detention the next two evenings, and requested that Professor Flitwick write to Hope's parents, as an extra warning.

It didn't mention the boggart at all.

Hope felt furious. The image of her family, bleeding to death, burned suddenly on her retinas and she shook her head violently to get rid of it.

"Hope?"

Professor Longbottom was standing in the doorway, looking confused, his arms full of large wriggling fruit-like objects.

"Are you OK?"

Hope did not speak. She just held out the scroll of parchment. Neville placed the fruits carefully in a box in the corner and took the it from her. His expression became more serious as his eyes scanned the text.

"Professor Flitwick isn't here," he said at last. "He's had to go home unexpectedly. He'll be gone until the holidays now."

Another silence.

"Shall _we_ have a chat?"

Hope shook her head, then nodded, then shrugged.

"Come on," Neville said. "Let's go to my office."

Hope felt nervous as she followed him along the corridors. She was very much in awe of Neville, and certainly did not want him to be angry with her as well.

When they got to his office, Neville pulled a tartan tin off a shelf, looking at it somewhat fondly, and offered Hope a biscuit from inside.

She just shook her head.

"No thanks."

He shrugged and sat down, taking one himself and rereading the letter. Then he looked up at her.

"Is there any particular reason why you hurt Elodie?"

"She made fun of me," Hope scowled. "She said horrible things about me and Dad and it's so unfair because she didn't even have to fight the stupid boggart herself. Although God know what she's afraid of. Probably running out of lipstick or something ridiculous like-"

"Hope." Neville sounded stern as he cut across her and Hope checked herself hurriedly. It was easy to forget that the Neville who came round sometimes in the holidays and laughed and joked with her parents and all the Weasleys was a different Neville to the one she knew at school. Neville in the holidays was still professional, but he always laughed along and joined in with the teasing jokes and light hearted comments shared by the members of her extended family. But Neville at school had to be completely fair and impartial and would never be one to favour a student just because he was friends with their parents.

"So you were studying boggarts?" Neville said, his tone calm. "You know, that was the first subject your dad did with us, when he taught here himself. It was a very good lesson!"

"Yes, but would Dad have made you fight it, if you didn't want to?" Hope asked bluntly. "I asked Professor Edgecombe if I could be excused and she said no. My dad would _not_ have done that."

Neville looked uncomfortable and Hope knew she had done it again. Crossed a line that just shouldn't be crossed at school. She registered dimly that she _had_ put Neville in a difficult position. He was a straight and honest person, but he was hardly going to side with a student over one of his colleagues.

"No, I don't think he would have done," he said, after a thoughtful pause, surprising her by answering at all. "But all teachers have different rules. Can I ask why you didn't want to?"

_Because I knew that it would become my family, all dead or dying from a werewolf attack. It's not exactly a fun thing to share with your classmates, is it? Especially when half of them don't like you._

She couldn't get the words out.

"Because it's personal," she said at last. "You shouldn't have to show your worst fears to people you don't even really like when not even your friends and family know about them."

Neville was looking very serious.

"Hope, I will have a word with Professor Edgecombe," he said eventually. "I happen to agree that you should not have been forced to tackle a boggart against your wishes. It _is_ a very personal thing. However," he tapped the letter that now lay on the desk in front of him. "You could have done Elodie serious harm. You must know that you can't be allowed to lash out at someone just because they say something that you don't like. The teachers are much better equipped to deal with unkind and unpleasant behaviour and you are aware of that. Professor Flitwick would say the exact same thing, if you were speaking to him right now."

Hope flushed a deep, dull red. Being told off by the people she liked and admired was a hundred times worse than being reprimanded by people she didn't care about, like _Edgecombe_.

Even so, she was not going to apologise for hurting Elodie, who she despised. Not when she hadn't even been able to make amends properly with her own father for a full term.

"Have you talked to anyone about what you're afraid of?" Neville asked, more kindly, after another blank silence. "There are plenty of people you can go to, Hope. I'm here, and Professor Flitwick is normally of course. Or your friends. Or your parents and Teddy. I can assure you that none of us would ever want you to suffer in silence."

_I tried to talk to my parents and they snapped at me and sent me to my room._

_You know that's not fair_ , came the instant reply in her head. _You know they were just trying to take everything in themselves that night. And you didn't even tell them properly what was wrong, and they tried to talk to you the next morning and you just refused._

"Are you going home for Easter?"

She shrugged, thinking of Teddy's unanswered letter upstairs.

"I think it might be a good idea," Neville said. "We never used to go home for Easter in our day, but it's very commonplace now, and we are encouraging it more and more for those who have places to go. Things are intense here, and it's good to have a proper break."

Hope just stared at the desk in front of her. Neville sighed, but the stern tone had completely gone from his voice as he continued.

"I will talk to Professor Flitwick when he is back, and I will have a word with Professor Edgecombe as well. You will do your detentions this week as requested, but I do not see any reason to write to your parents at this stage. However, I would suggest that you tell them about this yourself."

Hope nodded stiffly.

"My door is always open, whether you're in my house or not." Neville finished. "Remember that."

Hope felt a pang of regret as she left the office. She remembered the sorting hat's insistence that Gryffindor would probably be the best house for her. If she had listened, Neville would be her head of house, and she would be in a tower with the Gryffindor girls, who were cliquey but really not so bad, and James and his fun group of friends, and lovely, kind Michael, not horrid Elodie and her minions and stupid, childish Alec Peters.

_But you wouldn't be with Dom._

Dom – along with Roxanne - was her best friend in the world. And Dom had been _so_ happy that they were in the same house.

Hope sighed heavily and mooched down to The Great Hall for dinner.

O

"Tell us what happened with the Boggart again!"

Dom and Roxanne had been delighted when she had told them that she was coming home for Easter after all, and the three of them were now sitting in a train compartment chatting about the events of the last couple of weeks.

Hope screwed up her face, trying to remember. Everything had happened so fast.

"So I tried to get out of doing it, because I knew what it would be and I didn't want anyone to make fun of me. But Edgecombe _made_ me."

She swallowed. She had already told her friends what form the Boggart took. She was not prepared to describe it again.

"And I just froze. I couldn't do anything. The spell just didn't work however many times I said it. So Edgecombe started coming forward, and then... it's all a blur. I did manage to change it - it was still Mum and Dad, but Teddy was young and I was a baby. So I guess I must have done the spell last second before she stepped up? We were supposed to make it funny, but it just looked like a normal scene. But then how are you supposed to make your parents dying _funny_? And then Edgecombe said the spell properly and the Boggart went away completely."

Dom put her arm round Hope, who was shaking slightly at the memory of the scene.

"I hate her," she burst out. "Dad taught boggarts as well, when he was at Hogwarts. Neville told me. And he would _never_ have made anyone face it if they didn't want to. No chance."

"I hope I never have to do it," Dom gave a shudder. "Especially not in front of everyone."

"What would yours be?" Hope was suddenly curious.

"Probably being in hospital," Dom mumbled. She had a terrible fear of hospitals. "Or maybe just me. But how I was…before, you know. How people think I'm supposed to be."

"Not how _we_ think you're supposed to be," Hope said fiercely. "We think you're supposed to be exactly how you want to be."

Dom gave a small smile.

"What about you Rox?"

Roxanne did not answer for quite a while.

"I think it would be my parents splitting up," she said at last. "And it's all my fault. Sometimes I'm scared it really will happen. I swear their worst arguments are when I've done something bad."

Hope thought of George and Angelina. It was true they often were at loggerheads, but there were other times when, looking at them, you couldn't imagine two people more suited to each other. She could remember them dancing at Charlie and Alex's wedding, completely in their own little world, gazing into each others' eyes for the slow songs and falling about in hysterics for the faster ones.

"Rox, I'm sure they'd never split up!" Hope tried to reassure her friend. "They do seem happy most of the time. And-"

She broke off as the door slid open and Albus's serious little face appeared. Scorpius, of course, was just behind him.

"Can we join?"

"Yeah!"

"What would your boggart be?" Roxanne asked the two boys as they sat down and Albus, sugar addict as always, pulled out a bag of sweets and started handing them round.

Neither of them replied and Hope certainly wasn't going to press them, after her own experiences. She changed the subject hastily and resumed her rant about Edgecombe. Scorpius joined in at once.

"She's not very nice to me either," he finished. "I think she hated my dad at school. He was in the year below her."

"She not always horrible to me," Hope said. "I just can't make her out, it's so weird. Sometimes I think she's OK but then I do the slightest thing wrong and she gets all moody and annoyed. She definitely doesn't treat anyone else in the class the way she treats me! Ron says it's probably because of Hermione."

"Nah, I don't reckon so," Al said. "She's really nice to Rosie. Surely if she was going to hate anyone because of Aunt Hermione it would be her actual daughter."

" _All_ teachers love Rosie though," Scorpius pointed out, and Hope rolled her eyes in acknowledgement.

"Maybe it's because of your dad, like with Scorpius. She might hate werewolves," Roxanne suggested.

Hope pondered this. "I wondered that, but I don't think it can be the reason. We did werewolves a few weeks ago, and Elodie was saying really horrible things, and Edgecombe told her off, was really strict with her. And she's normally nice to Elodie – I think she knew _her_ Dad at school. So she wouldn't have done that if she hated werewolves, would she?"

"Maybe she _loves_ werewolves!" Albus said. "Maybe she was in love with your dad. No seriously," he insisted, as Roxanne started giggling. "That's what happened with Snape. You know… _Severus_ ," He pulled a disgusted expression. "The man my parents gave me my middle name for. He hated Grandpa – Dad's Dad - at school, but it turns out he was in love with Grandma Lily. And that's why he hated Dad so much when he taught him, even though Dad didn't really do anything wrong himself."

Dom was looking thoughtful, but Hope shook her head.

"It can't be that either," she said. "Edgecombe wasn't at school with either of my parents – there's too big an age gap, and there's no way she was in love with Dad. I mean, yeah he taught her, but only for a year and it sounds like he barely remembers her anyway."

"Maybe they were _secretly_ in love then!" Roxanne was still in fits of laughter. "Or maybe she fancied him and he never knew."

"Eww!" Hope hit Roxanne on the arm, though gently. "He was her teacher, and way older! And who would fancy my dad?"

"Well, your mum must have done." Dom was laughing as well now. "He's kind of good looking, Hope, especially when he was younger. Harry's got some old photos of him."

Hope wrinkled her nose. "Can people please stop telling me that my family are good looking. People go on about Teddy all the time – Natalie even said once that he was _sexy."_ She gave an exaggerated retch. "And going on about Dad is even more gross."

"Sorry," Dom grinned. "But still, it's not all about looks, is it? Your dad's like…one of the nicest people in the world. Maybe Edgecombe thought so too."

Hope was not impressed. "Can we change the subject please," she said firmly. "Edgecombe does have some kind of problem with _me_. I'm sure of it. But she did _not_ fancy my dad. No way!"

But that wasn't the reason she wanted to change the subject. Her insides were churning unpleasantly at Dom's last words. _One of the nicest people in the world_. And she had spent the whole term ignoring his letters.

O

Teddy was waiting for her at the station. Alone.

"How's Dad?" Hope said anxiously, as soon as she had hugged him hello.

"He's OK, don't worry! He was asleep when I left but he's fine. Mum got called into work last minute though. It sounded pretty serious – Red alert for the Aurors. That's the second highest. Harry's been called in too, Ginny said. I saw her just now."

Hope was very quiet as they left the station and Teddy summoned the Knight Bus. He paid a little bit extra for a private booth and hot chocolate and levitated her trunk into the rack above them as the bus moved on its way.

"You OK?" he said, looking at her in concern, after several minutes of silence. "You aren't normally this quiet after a term. Where's all your quidditch talk?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said at once. "Quidditch is good. We're in with a good chance of the cup again, even though we lost against Gryffindor, because Gryffindor then got slammed by Hufflepuff. We just need to beat Slytherin by enough points! I'm just tired I think."

"Fair enough."

They sat in silence for a few more minutes.

"How's your work?" Hope said at last.

"It's really positive, actually!" Teddy said, looking animated. "Things are starting to take shape. I'm still really hopeful about this being the right way to approach it. And hearing about Greyback at Christmas made me even more determined to-"

At the mere mention of the name, Hope burst into tears.

"Hope!" Teddy looked appalled as he crossed over to her seat at once and put an arm round her, pulling her towards him. "Hope, don't cry! You _never_ cry! What on earth's wrong?"

Haltingly, through many choked sobs, she told Teddy what had happened with the boggart a few days before, and how awful it had been and how she had been having nightmares all term.

"And- and that's not the worse part," she sniffed. "I haven't written to Dad since Christmas, even though he sent me letters and apologised for being angry with me that night and asked me to write back. But I didn't. Not properly. And I keep thinking about Greyback coming and attacking them, and you... But I still didn't write. And what if something had happened and I'd just never bothered to make things right again?"

"Hope, calm down," Teddy said gently. "No one's been attacked. Everything's OK. And Dad's fine too. He mentioned that you hadn't written back to him but he's not angry or anything. I don't think there really is anything _to_ make right. It's not like we haven't heard from you at all and you were hardly the world's greatest letter writer to begin with, were you?"

Hope just dragged her sleeve over her eyes.

"But I didn't say goodbye properly after Christmas and then I told them I wasn't coming home for Easter."

Teddy conjured her up some tissues.

"Well, I don't think they bought your excuse that you needed to stay at school and study..." He smiled as Hope dabbed her eyes. "But I do reckon you're overthinking this Hope. I'm sure everything's fine. They'll be delighted to see you and that'll be it. You'll see!"

Hope was silent for a little while, watching the blur of green and grey outside the window.

"So you chucked an ink bottle at Elodie's head, huh?"

Teddy's brown eyes were sparkling. Hope managed a reluctant smile.

"She deserved it," she said, her voice still thick. "I guess I shouldn't have told her that her parents wish she'd never been born. But she deserved the lump on the forehead. One hundred percent."

"Now that sounds more like the Hope I know," Teddy said, grinning at her fondly.

"Don't tell Mum and Dad though," she added, finally reaching for her hot chocolate and taking a large gulp. It did make her feel instantly better.

Teddy just nodded in understanding.

O

The house was quiet when they got back. Teddy put Hope's trunk in a corner and Hope looked round the familiar kitchen, feeling a welcome rush of calm. She tried to imagine being in her dormitory alone, while all the Weasleys were back at home. This had been the right decision.

"Teddy?"

Their father looked pale and tired as he came down the stairs, and stopped short in the doorway at the sight of his daughter.

"Well this is unexpec-"

Hope had thrown herself at him and hugged him before the rest of his sentence was even out of his mouth.

"Hope?" Remus tried to take a step back and get her to look up at him but she held on tightly and in the end he just hugged her back, equally fiercely. "Is everything OK?"

"Yes," she mumbled into his chest. She knew that Teddy would tell their parents what had happened. Don't tell Mum and Dad was their code for: you can tell Mum and Dad as long as I don't have to talk about it with them myself. _Swear_ you won't tell Mum and Dad was a different matter entirely.

"I'm just glad to be home."

"Well, we're glad to have you home," he said at once.

"Is Mum back?" Teddy asked, as the two of them broke apart.

"Not yet," he replied. His tone was very casual. Hope tried to work out if there was anything to worry about, but it was difficult. Their mum might wear her heart on her sleeve, but their dad was an expert at covering up how he was really feeling.

_Probably where you get it from._

Teddy made the dinner as Hope filled them in on her term at school, carefully avoiding anything to do with boggarts and werewolves.

"And Elodie's still staying away from Dom?" Remus asked.

"Yes," Hope said, relieved that this was a question that she could answer entirely truthfully. "She's still not a nice person, but she hasn't said a word to Dom all term, which is good because Dom's already worrying a lot about her OWLs. And people have heard about how angry Vector was last year, so no one else has said anything either. People aren't always _nice_ , exactly, but no one's being horrible to her anymore."

"I'm glad," Remus said sincerely. "And how are things with the new defence teacher?"

"Oh fine," Hope said, as Teddy caught her eye but didn't say anything. "Same old, really."

O

"Shouldn't Mum be back by now?" Hope enquired, glancing at the clock on the wall. It was ten o'clock. "Or said if she was going to be this late?"

"Red alerts generally mean late nights and little communication," Remus said. His tone was still casual, but Hope had not missed his exhausted expression, and knew that had Mum not been out on a potentially dangerous assignment, he would have been in bed long ago. He looked at her with a slight crease in his forehead. "Are you sure you're OK, love. You don't look very well."

"I'm fine," Hope said stubbornly. "I-"

She broke off, a wave of relief crashing over her, as the front door opened and her mother walked in at last. She looked exhausted, her shoulder length hair very matted, several bruises flaring up on her cheek.

"Hope!" she said, looking round at the three of them. "You're home! I wasn't expecting you! Is everything alright?"

"Teddy picked me up," she said. "I wanted to come back for Easter after all."

Tonks beamed and hugged her. "It's lovely to see you."

She still looked exhausted, despite this, and winced slightly as she sat down in a chair.

"Dora?" Remus was looking at her with growing concern. "What's happened? Are you alright?"

Tonks did not reply for several long moments and Hope's heart thumped wildly, but eventually she nodded and looked Remus straight in the eye.

"Fenrir Greyback is dead."

A silence followed this statement. Hope reached out for Teddy's hand under the table and he squeezed her fingers reassuringly. Their father just looked completely shocked and stared back at his wife.

"Are you sure?" he said at last.

"Yep." Tonks said. Her eyes were flinty. "Because I killed him myself."

**OOO**


	7. Hephaestus

* * *

**HEPHAESTUS**

_Fire_

* * *

Tonks hated leaving Remus the morning after the full moon, and usually requested evening or night shifts on those days, if she couldn't take the day off all together. But when the Red Alert summons came in late morning, she knew that they were not something she could ignore. Red Alerts needed as many highly qualified Aurors on the case as possible, and Remus, of course, would never let her shirk such important duty on his account.

"Are you sure you'll be ok?" she said anxiously, as she whirled round the room pulling on her robes.

Remus was sitting up in bed, his face pale. "I'll be fine Dora, stop worrying."

"Teddy said he has to go into work quickly this afternoon, but to send for him if you need anything. He'll be back to make dinner. Victoire's busy with family tonight."

"Yes, everyone will be back for the Easter holidays, I guess."

Tonks looked at him knowingly, not fooled by his casual tone or bland expression.

"I'm sure things will be fine soon enough," she said. "I doubt she is really holding a grudge. By the summer everything will be forgotten, you'll see. She's just a stubborn one."

He snorted.

"Well, I wonder where she gets that from."

Tonks just leaned over to give him a kiss.

"You can be just as stubborn as me when you want to be, Remus Lupin. I don't think I'm entirely to blame."

He smiled, if a little sadly, and hugged her.

"Bye love. Stay safe."

Tonks nodded. Staying safe on a Red Alert mission - or any mission for that matter - wasn't always a guarantee, but she would do her best.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

She could hear the tiredness in his voice, and he seemed on the verge of falling asleep again even as she left the room. Which was probably a good thing. The longer he slept, the less he would worry.

O

"What's going on?" Tonks entered the Auror department just a few minutes later. The place was a hive of activity, Aurors bustling in every direction. Even Savage was dressed in his fighting robes. But Tonks directed her question to Harry. Her hatred of Savage had only grown in recent years, with his constant passing of the buck, his shirking of responsibilities whenever he could get away with it, his way of always doing the bare minimum of work required of him. So it had been since the days of the second war, when Tonks had first worked with him, and even now, she treated him with as little respect as she could get away with.

Savage did not seem overly impressed at her addressing Harry rather than himself, but he did not say anything. He would be leaving next month, anyway. Harry might as well be head of the department already.

"It's Greyback," Harry said. There was sympathy in his green eyes as he said the words. "He attacked a young boy last night and fled."

Tonks felt a plummeting sensation in her stomach.

" _What_?"

"Two months of being a model citizen. Apparently, a third was too much to ask for." Harry's face was twisted with disgust. "Broke into a house in the next village. The boy's only five years old."

"But- but how did he transform in the first place?" Tonks asked. "I thought Greyback was being monitored taking his Wolfsbane!"

Harry nodded grimly.

"He was. We're not sure exactly how it happened - there'll be an investigation. It is not for lack of him _taking_ the Wolfsbane, that's for sure. He's been witnessed taking the potion every night this week. But…" he sighed, "there are things which can tamper with its efficacy, remember. Sugar, sometimes... or alcohol. In big enough doses, alcohol in particular would stop it working completely. And the MoMS official found an empty bottle in his residence then they went searching today. Somehow he'd got it past all the previous security checks."

Tonks let out a hiss of fury. "But then why wasn't he picked up straight away when he left his house last night?"

Harry grimaced. "Well, that's the other bad news, I'm afraid. It seems the full-on transformation blew out all the monitoring spells that were placed on him when he first started his parole. The MoMS didn't realise anything was wrong until the boy's mother reported the attack this morning. They're trying their best to locate him now, with tracking spells that use DNA from his house. But charms like that are complex and a little unreliable, as you know. They'll be able to work out the general area, not specific coordinates."

"Do they have any idea at all where he's gone?"

"They think somewhere up north."

Tonks felt ashamed of the stab of relief that she felt at this, but she couldn't help it. Her husband and son were about as far south as could be, and Hope would be safe at Hogwarts. She felt horrified and sickened that Greyback had robbed yet another poor, innocent child of a normal life, but the thought of him maiming her own family - yet again - would have been just too much to bear.

Her attention was caught by the curl of paper which had appeared in a puff of smoke above Savage's desk. Savage caught the distinctive grey parchment, used only by the MoMS, as it fell.

"The Great Knott Wood," he read out. "They can't narrow it down more than that."

"The Great Knott Wood?" Tonks repeated, staring at him in shock. "Up near Windermere?"

Savage nodded, and briskly started making plans. "Right, we'll take everyone we can, give each pair an area of the wood to search, hunt him down like that. If we-"

But Tonks was no longer listening. She was looking at Harry and knew from his expression that they were both thinking the same thing. The Great Knott Wood was an all too familiar name to both of them. The dark, tangled forest, steeped in ancient magic and mystery, where Remus had spent his long, lonely months as a spy during the second war, living among the werewolf community that had a base somewhere within its depths. Who was to say that some of them weren't still there now, living in the relative peace that Greyback's imprisonment would have brought them? And what would Greyback be prepared to do to them to ensure that they kept him secret?

"Could I have a word please Sir?" Harry said, his voice respectful but firm as he cut Savage off mid flow. "It's important. It may affect our planning of this."

Savage's face twisted slightly, but he allowed Harry to lead him over to the corner, and Tonks paced nervously in a tight circle, hoping that Harry would be able to impress upon their superior how delicate this situation could be. Prior to his imprisonment, Greyback had controlled nearly every werewolf in the country, through fear, blackmail and manipulation. If he were to show up at his old hideout, any that remained there now would likely do as he bade them, even if it meant hiding a criminal. Tonks knew that they almost certainly wouldn't turn him in, even when questioned by officials. Wild werewolves wanted as little to do with the Ministry as possible, and had resisted all offers of help and support over the last few years.

Harry, looking strained, reappeared by her side ten minutes later.

"Well?"

He sighed. "He was difficult - shocking, I know - but I told him about the werewolf colony that used to live there. He doesn't think it's anything to worry about - says that was twenty years ago and they'll have moved on by now-" Tonks rolled her eyes "-but he did agree to proceed more cautiously, just in case. If we find evidence of the werewolf community, two of us will go and try and talk to someone, the others will hang back."

Tonks brightened a little.

"Who gets to do that?" she said hopefully.

Harry smiled.

"I managed to convince him that you and I would be the best people for the job, in disguise of course, unless you have objections."

Tonks had none at all.

"How are we going to find it though?" she asked. "The settlement itself. It'll be at least partially concealed – they wouldn't want people stumbling across it randomly, especially not muggles. We'd have to comb every square metre of the area to find them, and even then... those woods are full of old magic and secret paths." Her mind ran quickly through their options. "I suppose I could ask Remus exactly where..." she trailed off and swallowed. She didn't want to ask Remus. She did not want him to know anything of this assignment until it was over with. The prospect of Greyback being on the loose, combined with the thought of the old werewolf colony would fill him with fear and worry, and he was already unwell. But if there was no other way...

Harry put a hand on her shoulder.

"No need," he said. "You're forgetting our most meticulous comrade in the Department of Magical Law. Who spent weeks compiling every detail of Remus's actions during the war to aid her campaign for werewolf rights."

"Hermione." Tonks managed a grin. "Of course."

O

It took Hermione a while to find exactly what they were looking for, and Savage continued to lose patience as she combed through her files of immaculate notes. But Harry's authority and insistence prevailed in the end, and an hour and a half later, they set off for Windermere with the required information.

As discussed between Harry and Savage, the rest of the group hung back, stationed at different points throughout the wood, while Harry and Tonks approached the area that Hermione had specified for them.

"Yes, this must be it," Tonks said, as they came to an apparent dead end in the path. As instructed, they stepped right through the trees. The branches melted away at their touch and immediately rewove themselves into a tangle behind them. Tonks stared ahead. A tiny hamlet, if you could even call it that, stretched out before them. A stream ran through the centre of the land, tiny houses on either side, all made of stone with mismatched roofs. Large patches of leafy gardens surrounded them. A few chickens and pigs roamed free.

Tonks knew that it had not always looked like this. The land had once been dead and swamp-like, with almost no sources of fresh food. The stone houses had been dilapidated wooden shacks, reserved for the highest ranking of the pack. Remus, very much a low ranking and mistrusted member of the group, had refused to tell Tonks exactly where he himself had slept during that time, but she knew it was nowhere pleasant.

"Do you remember how many used to live here?" Harry muttered.

"About sixty or seventy, I think," she said. "The conditions were miserable back then. But it doesn't look like there are nearly as many here now... maybe it's a bit more bearable."

She stared round, her eyes large and sad, wondering if she really believed what she was saying. She thought of the harsh winter that had just passed, and how cold it must have been inside the tiny stone houses. And yet, there _was_ a beauty in the simplicity of the scene that lay before them, a wild sort of tranquillity that was almost comforting, even to the view of an outsider.

"It's still a home though, isn't it?" she whispered. "The conditions are unimaginable for us, but it - it _is_ a home, for those who do live here. They might even be happy now. And if Greyback gets his claws in it again-"

"We won't let him," Harry said fiercely. "We'll get him Tonks. We have to!"

"I think - Harry, look!" she breathed suddenly, losing her train of thought and pointing over to the stream. A small girl, about five or six years of age, was wandering over by the water's edge, picking flowers, her long matted hair falling over her pale face.

"Come on!" Harry said.

They approached with caution. The girl looked at up at them curiously as they came nearer, but her eyes did not betray the slightest hint of fear.

"Hello," Tonks said, with a smile. "What's your name?"

"Maisie," she said at once. "Who are you?"

Tonks glanced at Harry. "We - err, we're -"

"Friends," Harry supplied. "We just need to talk to someone who lives here. Do _you_ live here?"

She stared back at him. "Of course I live here! I live in that house." She pointed at the tiny stone cottage nearest to the water. "Me and Dad and my little brother Jasper."

She turned her small, dirt-streaked face back to him and smiled placidly.

"And - and would it be possible for us to speak with your dad?" Harry asked.

She pondered this. "I don't know," she said at last. "He's feeling poorly, and he has a bad leg. Aren't _you_ feeling poorly?" she added, looking between them, suspicion in her gaze for the first time.

"Us?" Harry repeated. "No, we're fine!"

Maisie glared at him, her eyes narrowed. "But- but all adults are ill after the full moon! It's just me and Jasper who are fine. And Ava who lives over there." She pointed at a house a little further up the path. "And our friend Henry was fine when he lived here but then he became an adult and he left us."

Tonks felt another terrible wave of sadness in her chest. It was easy to forget, when Remus's life was going so much better for him, that werewolves all over the country still lived in these isolated packs, unable to afford Wolfsbane and regularly suffering injury and worse because of it. Home this might be for those who lived here, but the conditions were still pitiful within the tiny community. Those born into it, though clearly free of lycanthropy itself, were restrained by the curse nonetheless, bound to the lives that their parents were forced to lead, at least until they grew old enough to venture out into the world alone. And it was no use telling herself that this was the life they had chosen, that they had been offered other options in recent years. For most older werewolves, those of Remus's generation and before, the introduction of the werewolf rights had just been too little too late. Most had been let down too many times in the past to be willing to put trust in the authorities now.

"We're lucky," she said quietly, in response to Maisie. "Very lucky."

"Oi!"

A grizzled man had come out of the stone house and was limping towards them.

"That's my dad," Maisie said cheerfully. "Maybe he will be able to speak to you after all."

"Who are you? What do you want?" the man demanded, as he came nearer. "Maisie, come here at once."

Maisie did as she was told, and Harry spoke, his voice calm.

"I'm so sorry to intrude, sir, but we are looking for someone, someone we believe you may have seen today."

"Oh yeah?" the man said. "Who might that be?"

"Fenrir Greyback," Harry said, watching him closely.

The man merely grunted. "Name from the past, that is," he said. "Not here, I can assure you. Rotting in prison last I heard!"

Tonks, however, had been watching the little girl, and at the mention of the name Greyback, her face had flashed with recognition, her eyes widening as she looked up at her father. Then, catching Tonks's eye, she immediately became solemn.

Tonks, with a concealed smile, felt a pang of nostalgia for the days in which her own children had been full of that innocence, that complete inability to mask their true feelings. Then she exchanged a meaningful look with Harry, but the man had already turned away with a sharp command to his daughter. "Get inside, Maisie. Now!"

"Wait!"

The note of pleading made him hesitate and Tonks approached him and lowered her voice as Maisie scampered back towards the house.

"He attacked a child last night," she whispered. "A _child_. A young boy barely any older than your little girl."

"Shouldn't have let him out of prison then, should you," the man snapped. "As if someone like him could ever turn over a new leaf. He's a danger to anyone who crosses him and always will be."

"If he's here we can protect you," Tonks persisted. "But not if we don't know where he is."

The man shook his head. "I've already told you he's not here. Like me to write it down for you?"

But he didn't look either of them in the eye.

She tried again. "Look, I understand why you don't want to tell us. Please. I really do-"

"You don't understand a damn thing."

The man looked over his shoulder to check that Maisie was still safely in the house before turning back to them.

"It's all very well for you to stand there and ask these questions," he said, in low, ragged tones. "I know who you are. You can't fool me with that attire. You're interfering people from the Ministry, aren't you? But you have no idea the damage he did. The damage he could still do. You have no clue. He's just an ordinary criminal to you. Someone to tick off your list as you go about your duty, and forget about tomorrow."

"No, he's not-"

"We were rid of him," the man cut over, his voice broken and harsh. "After all those terrible years of war, we were _finally_ rid of him. And people like you have let him back into our lives."

"It wasn't our decision for him to be released from prison," Harry broke in. "We wanted nothing less, I assure you."

"You have no idea," the man repeated.

"But we do," Tonks pleaded. "Really we do. Please believe me. I- I..." she hesitated for a second, and then blurted out. "My husband is Remus Lupin."

It had been a stab in the dark, an off-chance remark, in the wild hope that the name might mean something to him. And as the grey eyes flashed with understanding, she knew it had paid off.

"Remus Lupin?" the man repeated, his tone of voice suddenly different. Still wary, but softer. Tonks nodded.

"Do you know him?"

He nodded stiffly.

"I did...a long time ago. Remus was... well, friend would be too strong a word, but he was an ally, I suppose. During the war. And to Della, the kids' mother. Always against Greyback. Always trying to convince us that You-Know-Who wasn't the way forward. Some listened, some even believed him, but no one dared to act on it, not with Greyback breathing down all our necks, always on the lookout for traitors. Then Remus disappeared for a week or so. And when he came back to us, he was... different. Harsh. Harder. He'd changed his mind. It wasn't worth trying to lead a normal life. You-Know-Who _was_ the way forward. Went back on everything he'd been saying before. Began to get closer to Greyback's inner circle. Most people believed him, too, believed that he'd been pushed out and wanted revenge on those who had hurt him. But it always seemed suspicious to me. To us."

"Well, you were right," Harry said. "It was a ploy, a way to get more information. He was a spy for our side. Working against Vol- against You-Know-Who. And against Greyback."

The man just shrugged.

"Well, we guessed as much in the end, because one night he refused to do Greyback's bidding and had to flee. We thought Greyback must have killed him."

Tonks remembered that night only too well. Remus had reappeared at The Burrow, half-starved and drenched in blood, barely conscious, his side mangled from Greyback's own claws.

"Well he didn't," she murmured. "He's alive. He helped us win the war. And we have children now too." She did not say anything more. It did not feel right to talk about her own life in the presence of this man, who had clearly known so much suffering. He surely must know, too, that her children did not lead the same life as his own.

But the man did not seem to be thinking along those lines at all. His eyes were far away.

"He helped Della once," he said abruptly. "She was badly injured one full moon but he helped her. Knew healing magic that I didn't. Probably saved her life. And we had nearly twenty years together that we wouldn't have had if she had died that night. And now I have our children..."

Tonks did not ask what had happened to Della. Something told her it was a tragic story. But after another long pause, the man volunteered the information himself.

"She died from complications, the night Jasper was born," he said, and not pausing to let Harry and Tonks reply with murmurs of apology, continued, "Her dying request was that I keep our children safe."

"Dad!" On cue, Maisie called out from the doorway of the house. "Dad, can I have some bread?"

"Just one piece," he called. His eyes were now haunted and sad, but the angry expression gone as he stared back at Harry and Tonks.

Tonks did not say anything else. Different to Remus this man may be, but twenty years of being married to a very stubborn werewolf had taught her to recognise when it was time to drop the arguments and let someone reach their own conclusions.

After several long moments of silence, the man took a deep breath.

"Alright. Greyback. He came here this morning. He's lying low for the next few days. There's a place. A - a secret place. A big clearing in the middle of the woods. We discovered it not too long ago but it's got some kind of old, protective magic on it, from way before our own time here. It's where we go now to transform, to keep the kids safe on the full moon." He ran a hand through his hair, looking quite wild, and the words seemed to stick in his throat, but he forced them out. "Half a mile up the woods to the left, behind the huge, gnarled tree. Biggest in the area, you can't miss it. There's a tiny gap in the lowest branches. You won't want to go anywhere near it, it's what the magic does. But fight that feeling and look properly and you'll find it."

He exhaled sharply, still avoiding their gaze. Tonks knew what the words had cost him.

"Thank you," Harry said. "Honestly. Thank you so much."

The man merely looked sullen.

"He was expecting people like you to come calling, but he said you'd never find him. We were all under orders to say nothing to anyone and I don't think he believed for a second we would defy him. If he finds out-"

"He won't," Tonks said at once. "We guarantee your safety."

The man just made a derisive noise in the back of his throat. "You can't guarantee our safety against Greyback, and if everything else you've just told me is true, then you _know_ that," he said. "And if you don't find him, he'll return here in a few days, and set up base in the barn right at the end. Just as he used to. Our leader reinstated," he finished bitterly.

"He won't," Tonks said. "He won't be coming back here."

The man just raised his eyebrows. He clearly did not believe her. "I need to get back inside," he said shortly.

"What's your name?" Tonks asked.

The man looked round again.

"Lawrence," he said, after a pause. Then, with a twist of his mouth that could have been an attempt at a smile, "give my best to Remus."

Tonks stared sadly after him as he limped towards his doorway, knowing what had to be done now. Harry looked down at her.

"Do you want me to do it?"

She shook her head, and pointed the wand at his back, her hand quite steady.

" _Obliviate_."

O

"Harry," Tonks tugged at his arm as they started to make their way back towards the trees. "Harry, do we have to tell Savage about this? Can't we just find the place now? Go in ourselves and corner Greyback and then send for the others to come and help?"

Harry just stared at her.

"He'll do it wrong," Tonks burst out. "You know he will. He doesn't handle these situations right and he never has. He'll order us all to go crashing in, and Greyback will probably have about ten minutes warning and he'll be out of there before we know it."

Harry, looking stricken, ran a hand through his black hair, but said nothing.

"We'd do it right, if it was the two of us," she added.

"But we can't." She could hear the reluctance in his voice. "I can't just allow us to go chasing a dangerous criminal on our own. You know I can't. Firstly, we're under strict orders from Savage to report back as soon as we have information. I'm supposed to be taking over this department in a month, and Savage has already made it as difficult for me as he can. One wrong move now could set the handover back by months, and the whole department will be better off once Savage has gone. Secondly, and more importantly, who's to say we can overpower Greyback without back up? Magically we outrank him, but he's horrendously strong and has no morals whatsoever. And finally," his mouth twitched. "Remus would skin me alive if he knew I'd put you in danger like that."

"Remus wouldn't have to know!"

Harry snorted. "Yeah right... you can't lie to Remus any more than I can lie to Ginny."

Tonks rolled her eyes but didn't argue further. Harry spoke the truth. Everything he was saying was true, and completely logical, and yet... Tonks was afraid. More afraid than she had ever been on an assignment before. And not one modicum of that fear was for herself.

"Tonks?"

Harry was looking at her in concern.

"What is it?"

For a second, the fear built to such a pitch that she nearly blurted everything out. How she felt an overwhelming panic that they would fail. That Greyback would escape and go free. Wreak havoc on the poor community they had just left. And she would have failed them all. Failed that poor, long suffering man and his sweet little girl and baby son. Failed the little boy who's life had been damaged by Greyback hours before. And worst of all, failed her family. Failed Remus.

But Tonks hated admitting her fears. She was very much like her daughter in that regard.

"Nothing," she said. "I know you're right. Savage had better not mess this up, that's all."

Harry sighed.

"I'll do everything I can to stop that from happening, Tonks. I really will."

O

"But I'm just saying, the area might have another exit. This might not be the only way in and out. And we have no way of knowing where the others might be."

Savage ignored her and Tonks felt a great swell of frustration. Their superior had, as least, taken a lot of what Harry had said on board. They had not, as Tonks had initially feared, gone barrelling in all wands blazing. Instead, they had proceeded slowly through the wood, spreading out, taking all the necessary precautions. Several Aurors had been left stationed around the werewolf settlement as a guard should Greyback manage to return. They had cast anti-apparition charms in as wide an area as they could, to limit his chances of escape.

On finding the entrance to the clearing that Lawrence had described, the group had hung back while Tom Bentley, senior Auror and master at stealth and tracking, had gone in to see what they were dealing with. Bentley had confirmed that Greyback was indeed within the little clearing, and, encouragingly, Bentley's own presence had gone unnoticed, which told them that Greyback was not using warning spells to alert him to intruders. It appeared that he was, as Lawrence had implied, arrogantly assuming that his powers of manipulation over his old peers would be enough to keep him safe and hidden.

So far so good.

But the rest of Savage's orders just didn't make sense to Tonks. Surely they should all be going in to surround Greyback, to have as many wands turned on him as they could. Flushing him out to where the rest of the group lay in wait was all well and good, _if_ they could be certain that this was the only exit.

Which they couldn't. They were in a goddamn forest. And a forest full of ancient magic at that.

"Sir, she does have a point," Bentley said, and Savage turned to him with a sigh. Tonks felt torn between gratitude for Bentley's input and fury at Savage's attitude, that he should ignore her but acknowledge someone else saying the exact same thing, when she had worked in this department ten years longer than Bentley had. Probably just because he was a _man_. Harry's ascension to official head of the department really could not come fast enough.

"Potter said this is where they come to transform at the full moon, _to keep their children safe,"_ Savage said to Bentley _. "_ It must be a pretty secure space. There wouldn't be a lot of ways out, would there?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean there aren't any at all," Tonks protested. "More of us should go in. Surround him completely and get him right where he is. If enough of us are there in the first place-"

Savage just shook his head. "We stick to the plan," he said. "You four will get close enough to corner him. We'll be lying in wait in case he makes a break for it, which he may well do. He'll be easy to catch off guard if he thinks there are only four of you. If more of us go in, there is a greater chance of giving ourselves away before we're in the prime position, and you and Potter said yourselves that this needed the quiet approach."

"But that's not the same-"

"Auror Lupin, you will do as you are told or someone else will take your place," Savage said coolly. "It's only because of Potter's input that you're going in at all. Your stealth and tracking record is hardly exemplary."

Tonks felt Harry's hand grip her arm, warning her against retorting further. She choked down her anger. There was only one enemy in the woods with them right now, and it wasn't Savage. She gave a stiff nod and Savage resumed.

"Right you four, silencing shrouds, disillusionment charms. Checked? Off you go."

"Hang on!" Tonks had just thought of something else.

Savage turned to her impatiently.

"What now?"

Tonks hesitated, the words on the tip of her tongue, and then swallowed them back. Lawrence's recent words echoed in her ears.

_You can't guarantee our safety against Greyback._

Except that she _could_. There was one way to guarantee everyone's safety against him. But arguing with Savage wasn't the way to do it. She couldn't afford to annoy him further and risk being taken off the frontline. She just needed to get in that clearing.

"Nothing," she said. Savage just sighed, then stepped back and motioned them through the branches.

The four of them, soundless and invisible, entered the clearing, a large patch of grass surrounded by tall silvery trees. It would have been quite beautiful, Tonks thought, if it weren't for the figure at the far end of the area and the knowledge of who he was and all that he stood for. Greyback sat under a large tree, lazing against the trunk, filthy and matted as he ever had been. Even from the other side of the clearing, Tonks could see him filing one of his long, claw-like nails. The mere sight brought bile to her throat.

As planned, they approached step by step. Even though Tonks could not see her colleagues, she knew where they were. Bentley to the left, Auror Hughes on the right. Harry also slightly to her right and just two steps ahead of her.

They'd only need to be a little closer and they'd have him cornered.

But as they got within fifteen metres of the large tree, Greyback's head jerked and he looked up sharply.

Tonks came to a dead halt, and knew, purely by Auror's instinct, that the other three had stopped too. They had been caught out. Just as she had thought they might be in those few moments before Savage sent them in. And if Savage had treated her with any respect at all he would have known it too, that a werewolf's sense of smell was heightened following the full moon, particularly after a fully fledged transformation. Greyback might not be able to see or hear them, but the wind was at their backs, and they were now close enough that he would be able to smell them.

Harry had clearly realised too, because as Greyback stood up and grabbed his wand, he threw off his own disillusionment charm. Tonks hesitated for a split second, then imitated him. She wasn't prepared to attack even Greyback from an invisible vantage point. Their enemies should always be able to see who faced them.

Hughes had let her disillusion fall away as well. Bentley, however, was nowhere to be seen.

A wall of light exploded from Greyback's wand. Hughes got the full blast of it and was sent flying several metres back, landing in a crumpled heap on the earthy floor. Tonks was also thrown to the ground, but with less force. Harry, in a better position and quicker with the shield charm, blocked the spell completely, and in his next move had disarmed Greyback. His wand was flying out of his hand even as Tonks struggled to her feet.

"The game's over, Fenrir," Harry called, as he caught the wand deftly in his own hand. He and Tonks took several steps closer. "We have back up. Give yourself up now."

Fenrir just gave a cackle of laughter. Tonks stared back at him, the filthy, vile, savage creature who stood before them. The werewolf who truly did earn the title of bloodthirsty beast.

"Had you fooled, didn't I?" he said. "As if I could ever want a life playing by your pathetic little rules."

He spat the words at them.

"Returning to your life sentence in Azkaban suits you better, does it?" Harry said coolly. "Fine by us."

"Smug as always, I see, Potter," Greyback sneered. "We'll just see about that... oh but who's this you've brought with you?"

Greyback's eyes fell on Tonks, and she knew that he recognised her. There was a gleam of triumph in his eyes.

"Lupin, isn't it, nowadays?" he breathed. "How's your _mate_? Back home protecting the cubs, I hope. How I would so love to pay them all a little visit."

Tonks was almost shaking. She had only felt hatred like this once before, when staring Bellatrix Lestrange down in the Battle of Hogwarts all those years ago.

But she had failed to kill Bellatrix that day. And how she had paid for that failure.

She couldn't afford to make that mistake a second time. And the thought gripped her again, that there really was only one way to guarantee anyone's safety against Greyback, only one way to ensure that he never again maimed an innocent human life.

The thought entered her mind with far more force than before, and in that instant, she knew it was the only option. But it was terrifying. Tonks had never before planned to take another life. It had always just happened. The quickest of curses in the heat of battle. An unavoidable consequence of her defensive reflexes. This was different. Different, because it wasn't the only option. Different, because it wasn't the Auror way anymore.

_He deserves it._

It went against every principle she worked so hard to live and work by.

_And what about Greyback? He has no principles at all._

He would stop at nothing to get back at them. All of them. Lawrence. Maisie. Jasper. Harry. Remus. Teddy. Hope. Even if he returned to Azkaban, they might not be safe forever.

_You don't have a choice._

She didn't.

But even as the deadly words were building in her mind, forming in the back of her throat, Greyback made a lunging movement towards Hughes, who had now got shakily to her feet and was striding towards them as well. Harry, diving to his colleague's aid, shot a stunning spell, but it missed as Greyback changed direction at lightening speed, and, breaking through the now wide gap between Harry and Tonks, began to run towards the other end of the clearing.

He was going in the opposite direction to where their colleague stood waiting beyond the trees. Which meant that, as Tonks had suspected and tried to tell Savage, there must be another way to get out of this clearing.

"Stun him!" Harry roared, firing curses from both the wands in his hand.

But Greyback was agile and both Harry and Hughes' curses missed him by millimetres. Tonks sprinted after him as he reached the edge of the trees, her wand raised, jets of red light streaming from the tip.

"Stupefy!" Tom Bentley, finally letting the disillusionment charm fall away, appeared two metres away and hit their pursuit square in the back. The curse, combined with Tonks's own spells, brought Greyback down in an instant, and he fell hard against the roots of a thickset tree.

Tonks's legs continued to carry her forwards, even as Bentley retreated.

"Guard him," he barked at her. "Stun him again if he shows any signs of revival. I'll get Savage and everyone up here."

She had seconds. Seconds before someone else took charge. Seconds to do what no one else would be willing to do.

_"You can't guarantee our safety against Greyback."_

She could.

But only if she acted now.

"Tonks!"

Harry's yell came from right behind her, and she heard the note of warning in his voice.

But her mind was made up. With a flick of her wand, the tree above Greyback's limp form ignited.

"Tonks, wait!"

Harry reached her and grabbed her arm, understanding blazing in his green eyes as fiercely as the branches that burned on the tree ahead of them. Their eyes locked and Tonks waited for him to tell her not to do it, to reason with her, to stop her from dealing the fatal blow. But he said nothing. His grip on her wrist slackened just moments later. And she knew that he could find no justification for the words, no reason why they _shouldn't_ kill the man who lay before them, the man who had played such a destructive part in their lives and the lives of those they loved most.

Everything else happened in a matter of seconds.

Harry let go of her arm completely and Tonks slashed her wand through the air. The burning tree crashed down on Greyback with the force of a small bomb, and for the second time in minutes, Tonks was blasted off her feet. Sparks and smoke went up in a great billowing cloud, just as Savage and their colleagues reached them.

"GET BACK!" Savage yelled at once.

Tonks allowed Harry to drag her back several more metres. The heat of the flames scorched her eyes and she winced as a another spark exploded from the fire and grazed her cheek. But she did not take her eyes of the blaze before them.

"FINITE! EXTINGUIO! AGUAMENTI!"

Savage, along with several other colleagues, was trying to undo the damage, but Tonks knew that it wouldn't make a difference. Fenrir Greyback was already dead.

"What happened?" Savage rounded on Tonks and Harry as the flames died away. Tonks could make out a charred pair of legs poking out from under the trunk. Some of the other Aurors were moving in to assess the damage, but Harry stayed resolutely beside her, and she could feel his silent sympathy, his support, his solidarity. And she was grateful for it, relieved that Harry understood what none of their other colleagues would have done.

Neither of them answered Savage.

"What. Were. You. _Doing_?" Savage snarled at Tonks. "You know our orders. We bring them in alive, unless there is no other way."

"Well, I didn't see any other way," she said at once. As the smoke cleared, so did her mind, and into it crept the overwhelming certitude that she had done the right thing, whatever Savage might think.

Savage glared at her. "Capture, not kill," he spat. "How many times have you yourself said those words? You know full well we could have captured him. He was down - Bentley had already stunned him. And instead, you thought you'd have a bit of fun?"

" _Fun_?" Tonks spat right back at him. It was taking every ounce of resolve not to point her wand in his face. Aurors did not turn on each other. But still. What she wouldn't give to smash the lazy, self-satisfied bastard right between the eyes. "You think I did this for _fun_?"

She took a deep breath to steady her voice and looked him straight in the eye. "Is there no one you would kill for, Savage? Is there no one in this world who has caused so much pain and suffering to those you love that only ending their life can be enough?"

"You are not paid to be sentimental," Savage retorted. "You are paid to do your job of catching Dark Wizards. _Catching_ them. When the Minister hears-"

"Enough."

The single word broke their argument and Tonks subsided. Harry's voice brought a rush of respect and calm that Savage had never been able to inspire in her.

"What's done is done," Harry continued. Tonks smiled to herself in spite of everything. This was her favourite way of bringing an end to an argument as well. "And none of us can pretend he is any great loss, Sir. We will speak to the Minister ourselves when we're back and tell him what happened. He can decide how to proceed."

Savage's scowl deepened. It had never pleased him that Harry and Tonks held so much favour with Kingsley. But a criminal killed in the chase was and always had been a matter for the Minister of Magic, and Savage, whatever else he might be, was a stickler for rules and procedure. He said nothing more, merely swept over towards his colleagues to begin the clear up.

Harry turned to Tonks and gripped her shoulder tightly.

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah."

He just raised an eyebrow.

"I'm fine, honestly."

Was she fine? She wasn't sure. She had not killed anyone for years. And she had never killed like this. But Greyback was dead. And slowly the shock of what she had just done was giving way to relief. Never again would he threaten her family. Never again would he threaten anyone's family.

"Are you angry?" she said abruptly. "At what I did?" The words left her mouth before she could stop them, stupidly childish for her forty-six years, but she couldn't help it. Savage's approval meant nothing to her. Harry's meant a great deal more. Certain though she was that she had done the right thing, Harry would not have acted as she had just done. She was sure of it.

But Harry was staring over at the charred tree and Tonks saw the haunted look in his eyes. Greyback had affected his life too, albeit indirectly. Where would they all be now in this world if Remus had never been bitten, if his school friends had never made the decisions they had made because of his condition? What would have come to pass without the wolf, the stag, the rat, and the dog?

For better or for worse, they would never know. But Tonks knew that Harry would always wonder.

"No," he replied at last. "Of course I'm not angry."

He finally tore his gaze away from the tree and looked at her.

"It's just sixty years too late."

**OOO**

"So – so are you in trouble?" Teddy asked anxiously, as her mother finished the story.

She shook her head, looking very weary.

"No," she said. "There will be an enquiry, there always is in cases like this. But Aurors have the authorisation to kill if necessary. Savage, for all he made a fuss today, won't want to be bothered with this in his last month in office. Harry will back me up all the way, and Kingsley won't press the matter further than he needs to."

Remus was very quiet.

"Did you speak to Lawrence again?" he said at last.

Tonks nodded. "Yes, we had to let them know Greyback was dead, to spare them the worry, but as we'd wiped his memory and dropped our disguises he obviously didn't remember us from earlier. We just were official. Told him we'd discovered the body of Fenrir Greyback in the woods, asked if he knew about it. He said he didn't, obviously. And that was that."

"I remember him," Remus said softly. "And Della. They were always good to me. Some of the few who were."

He lapsed into silence again.

"What about the little boy Greyback attacked?" Teddy asked.

Tonks looked stricken.

"He's in St Mungo's. His parents are distraught, of course. But with the right treatment, constant Wolfsbane and a more accepting society than before... we can hope that he won't suffer too much when the wound itself has healed. And who knows where we'll be with lycanthropy treatment in a few years."

Tonks smiled at her son encouragingly and he managed a grin in return.

Hope had listened intently to her mother's story but did not say a word. When the talking had subsided all together, she put her empty mug in the sink, and went upstairs.

"Is Hope alright?" Tonks asked, finally distracted from her own thoughts and looking worriedly between her husband and son. "She's very quiet."

Teddy hesitated. "Sort of," he said. "She doesn't want to talk about it, but I know she doesn't mind me telling you."

He recounted what Hope had told him about the boggart. By the end of the tale, Remus was even paler than before and Tonks looked livid.

"This Edgecombe woman made a thirteen-year-old face a boggart in front of the whole class, when she'd specifically asked to be excused?"

"Dora-" Remus began. She rounded on him, even more menacing than usual with her scratched face and wild hair.

"Don't _Dora_ me. Would you have done that?"

"Of course not!" Remus said sharply. "But teachers make mistakes just like the rest of us, remember. It sounds like she had no idea what would happen and if she had she wouldn't have done it."

"It's still unacceptable," Tonks raged. "I'm going to complain."

"Mum, please don't say anything," Teddy said, his forehead knotted in consternation. "Please don't. Hope would hate it, and it sounds like Neville's going to have a word with Professor Edgecombe anyway. And it was you and Dad that she was most worried about, not what happened at school. She – she just wants things to be right. I can't remember when I last saw her that upset, but it was you and Dad she was upset about, not herself."

"OK," Tonks sighed. calming down a little and rubbing a hand over her eyes. She did not have the energy for more anger that night. "OK. Thanks Teddy. But we will sit down with her in the morning and speak to her properly. I had no idea that she was so worried about Greyback. I wish we'd insisted on talking about it before term. Everything was just such a shock and we thought she was fine. She always said she wasn't bothered about him."

"I know," Teddy said. "But she's not great at showing how she's really feeling, is she?"

Tonks raised an eyebrow and looked sideways at Remus.

"Bit like someone else I know."

He just smiled wanly.

"I'm going to bed," Teddy added, after another silence. "Night."

He patted his father on the shoulder and kissed his mother on the cheek. As he went upstairs, he saw, out of the corner of his eye, his mother collapse into his father's arms, shaking, and knew that they had been holding everything together purely for the benefit of their children.

He poked his head into his sister's room before going to his own. The nightlight that Hope still slept with, despite not needing it at school, glowed brightly in the corner.

"Night, Dopey."

"Did you tell Mum and Dad about what I told you on the bus?"

"Yes," he said, looking worried suddenly. "That was OK, right? You wanted me to really, didn't you?"

She nodded, fiddling intently with one of her fingernails.

"So - so are things OK now? Or are they mad at me?"

Teddy laughed softly and came right into the room. He ruffled her hair, just as he always had when she was smaller.

"We're family, you idiot," he murmured. "Things were always OK."

O

Hope was not asleep, merely curled up in a ball under her duvet, when her mother looked in on her on her way to bed. She heard the soft whisper of "Good night, love," but didn't reply.

Half an hour later, she heard the heavier tread of her father's footsteps. He came right into the room, and she felt the bed covers move a little as he planted a kiss somewhere above her head.

"Dad?"

She emerged from the duvet in time to see him pause in the doorway and turn back around. She could see by the dim light that he was smiling.

"I thought you were asleep," he said, coming back over sitting down on the edge of the bed next to her.

She just shook her head.

"Are you OK?" she said in a small voice.

He gave a soft laugh. "I'm fine, Hope. And that's not for you to worry about, anyway. It's my job to make sure that _you're_ OK."

That was all very well for him to say, Hope thought. But she _did_ worry about him. All the time. And she had spent a whole term making it seem like she didn't.

She struggled with the words. She knew she should say sorry, but she had always found that little word so hard to say, even when it was practically burning a hole in her chest, her lungs screaming it silently behind her rib cage. In the end, she went for a different approach, which she hoped would convey the same thing.

"Dad, I'll write to you loads next term. I will, I promise."

"Well, that would be lovely," he said gently. "But as long as you're having fun at school, and as long as things are OK with us, it really doesn't matter to me. I just want you to be happy."

"Things are good at school, and things are OK with us, and I am happy. But I'm still going to write to you lots."

He laughed again at her stubborn tone.

"Then that's fine with me."

She collapsed against him and hugged him tightly, wanting to cry again, such was her relief that she was home, and that Greyback was dead and her family safe and no one was angry with her. But one bout of hysterics was quite enough for one day, and she so hated to appear weak. He returned the embrace and kissed the top of her head.

"Dad?"

"Mmm?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, sweetheart. Very much."

Hope barely even heard the last few words. Sleep was crashing over her in waves, and Remus had to prise her off him and lay her back down gently a few minutes later. But he was smiling as he shut the bedroom door behind him, two of his greatest worries having been lifted from his chest in the space of a couple of hours.

Hope slept on that night, and not a single bloodthirsty monster appeared in her dreams.

**OOO**


	8. Aphrodite

* * *

**APHRODITE**

_Love_

* * *

_April_

When the new term came about, no longer plagued by vivid nightmares, Hope found that she had something new to distract her.

"Who's that?" she enquired, looking across the grounds to where James Potter was sitting by the lake, stretched out in the sun, next to another boy she was certain she'd never seen before.

"Who?"

"That guy who's sitting with James."

Roxanne looked over and then back at her friend in astonishment.

"Have you been living under a rock since the start of the year, Hope?"

Hope supposed that she had been, in some ways, what with her fears about Greyback and guilt over how she had left things with her dad. "Maybe," she acknowledged. "I don't recognise him, anyway. So who is he?"

"Adam Towler," Roxanne replied. "He transferred from Ilvermorny just after Christmas." She lowered her voice. "I know what happened – Dad told me, because he and Mum knew Adam's dad at school, but don't say anything, yeah?"

Hope agreed at once. She loved a bit of gossip.

"So his dad's Welsh, and went to Hogwarts, but his mum's from America," Roxanne said. "And they've lived in America for years but then his parents split up. And Adam came back to Britain with his dad, even though his brother has stayed out in The States with their mum!"

Hope stared over at Adam. She wondered if she would ever be willing to leave Teddy behind. Then she tried to imagine her parents splitting up and having to pick who she lived with. She couldn't. Her parents were her parents. They were a unit. The thought of them living their lives in two separate worlds was just unfathomable.

"That's sad," she said, but Adam, from what she could see, didn't look too unhappy. He was laughing along with James, showing very white, even teeth.

"He wasn't hanging out with James before, though," she mused.

"No, that does seem to be a recent thing," Roxanne agreed. Her dark eyes sparkled. "Liking what we see, are we?"

"No," Hope said at once, morphing away the blush that she knew would have otherwise spread over her cheeks.

Roxanne and Dom just exchanged amused glances behind her back.

O

Whatever she might have told her friends, Hope couldn't help but notice Adam almost daily after that, and was delighted, a few weeks later, when she finally got a chance to speak to him.

She and Dom were sitting in the courtyard, discussing their last quidditch match against Slytherin, which although hadn't secured them the cup, had brought them a lot closer to winning it, when, with a leap of delight, she saw James and Adam settle themselves down on the bench across from them.

"That reminds me," she said casually. "I have a package to give to James."

Dom just raised her eyebrows. "You mean the one that came this morning, that you've been carrying round in your bag all day?" Hope looked sheepish. Dom always saw right through her.

"Well, go on then. Here's your chance to talk to him. I'll wait here."

Hope didn't move. "But... but you have to come with me!"

Dom burst out laughing and rolled her eyes, but she did consent to accompany Hope over towards the two boys.

James looked towards them as they approached and flicked his dark hair out of his eyes. He had been sincerely irritating Hope recently. Having gained several inches in height over the year, got himself an improved haircut and a more muscular frame due to his training as part of the Gryffindor reserve team, he was now gaining a large amount of attention from girls all over the school. Hope, however, thought he was behaving like an arrogant piece of crap.

"What do you want?" he said, as they reached him. Hope glared at him.

"I've got a parcel for you, haven't I, dungbrains?" She instantly regretted her choice of tone and words and found that she had to morph away another flush of colour from her face. She had wanted Adam to think that she was cool and sophisticated, not a five-year-old.

"From Teddy," she added, in her normal voice, digging it out of her bag. "He was in Madrid for a research thing and he picked up some Aguilas quidditch stuff for you."

James did at least have the grace to look a little ashamed of himself. "Thanks," he muttered, taking the parcel. "This is Adam, by the way. Adam, this is my cousin Dom and my sort-of-cousin-but-not-blood-relative, Hope."

Adam smiled and politely shook hands with both of them. "I've heard a lot about you!"

Hope felt Dom stiffen slightly beside her and knew that this was the first test. As much as she felt that she would like to get to know Adam, if he was even the slightest bit rude or cold around Dom, as a lot of people were, then it was game over.

"And I saw you both fly in the last match!" he said. "You were amazing. Slytherin didn't stand a chance against you two!"

Dom seemed to relax. James just snorted as he unwrapped his parcel to inspect the contents.

"The season's not over yet!" he reminded them. "Everyone else has another match to play, remember."

"Yes," Hope acknowledged. "But no one is undefeated this year, so it will come down to points difference in the end."

Adam shook his head. "I doubt anyone will fly as well as you guys. I've never seen so many goals scored in a school match! Not even at Ilvermorny!"

Hope tried to look modest and Dom just shrugged.

"Cal should have most of the credit, really," she said. "He's been such a good captain the last two years."

"He's leaving next year though," Hope said. "Then Dom will be captain. And she'll be just as good."

"It won't matter!" James declared. "Whatever happens this year, Gryffindor are _definitely_ going to win next year, so captain or not, I'm afraid your victory streak is about to be cut short."

"Whatever," Hope said. Then, not sure what else to say and not wanting to look lost for words in front of Adam, added, "We've got to go, see you around."

She couldn't help smiling from ear to ear as they went on their way. Adam had noticed her flying! He had said she was good!

"Speaking of Cal," she added to Dom. "What's going on there, with you two?"

Dom just shook her head and averted her eyes. "Nothing."

Hope was unconvinced.

"But… you were getting on so well. I'm _sure_ he likes you. And you like him too, don't you?"

Dom just shrugged, still avoiding her gaze. "He's leaving next year, and planning on going to work in America. There's really no point in liking him at all."

**oOo**

* * *

_May_

Hope found that she was falling into more and more frequent daydreams about Adam as the term wore on, thinking up increasingly unrealistic situations in which they might run into each other, what she might say, how she might react, impress him, make him laugh...

Of course, when the situation did present itself, one afternoon as she was heading into the grounds after History of Magic class, she found herself at a complete loss at what to say.

"Hope!"

Hope turned, and her stomach did a somersault as she saw Adam hurrying along the corridor towards her.

"You dropped this!" he said, holding out a book.

Hope hesitated for a fraction of a second. The book was actually Marion's, but that might be embarrassing for Adam if she told him.

"Thanks," she said, taking it and putting it in her bag. Suddenly she didn't know what to say. "Err.. yeah! Thanks! Cool."

She cringed internally.

_Say something interesting._

Nothing came to mind.

"Quidditch cup safely yours then, after Saturday?" Adam enquired, and Hope nodded, relieved at the conversation lead. Quidditch was one thing she found easy to talk about.

"Yep! No one can catch up now."

"Well, I did tell you!"

About to reply, Hope's attention was suddenly caught by the sight of Dom, who was conversing seriously with Cal in the entrance hall. Even as Hope looked towards them, Dom turned and walked away, her face crumpled. Cal just stared after her, looking sad.

The urge to stay and listen to what was surely going to be more compliments from Adam about her flying ability was overwhelming, but Hope knew she was a better friend than _that_.

"Sorry," she said to Adam. "I'm sorry, I've got to go. But thanks for picking up my book!"

"Yeah.. no problem."

Hope was already on her way. She caught up with Dom at the foot of a staircase.

"Dom!"

Dom turned and smiled, hastily wiping her hand across her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Dom shook her head.

Hope felt bewildered.

"Come on, it's me. You can tell me. Did Cal upset you?"

"No," Dom said at once. "Of course not. I - I don't want to talk about it Hope. Not now. Maybe another time."

As she so often did when Dom became closed and secretive, Hope let the matter drop, feeling concerned.

**oOo**

* * *

_June_

Dom continued to be mysterious about Cal, and Hope gave up trying to ask her what was going on. As for Adam, she did not run in to him again by chance at all, and certainly didn't have the nerve to seek him out just for the sake of talking to him. But it was hard to forget the subject of romance all together. June had come, exams had finished, and with that time of year came an added excitement for those in third year and above - the summer solstice Hogsmeade visit. This trip was the absolute favourite of the year. Keen to get as much Hogwarts business before the holidays, merchants always lined the streets with outdoor stalls, playing music and giving out free samples, and, best of all, the curfew for students getting back to school was several hours later than usual.

Hope had assumed that she would be going to this with Dom and Roxanne, as always, until she overheard Elodie one night in the dormitory.

"So, who are you going on the Hogsmeade visit with?" Elodie asked Natalie and Marion as she brushed out her hair before bed.

"Going with?" Marion stared at her blankly. "I - I thought we were all going together?"

Elodie laughed. "Well, I'll be going with Jack. No offence, but I don't really want you tagging along, do I?"

Marion looked even more anxious. "We have to go with a _boy_?"

"You don't _have_ to," Elodie said. "It's just cool to, isn't it? But don't worry... I'm sure _some_ people won't have a date, so you won't be the only one."

She shot Hope a very pointed look, and Hope just glared back at her, but inside there was a certain sense of disquiet. No one had said anything to her about needing a date.

"That's absolute rubbish," Roxanne declared the next day. "You definitely don't need a date. Loads of people just get together at the end of the year for the sake of it. But it's way more fun without."

"Easy to say when you've got a boyfriend..." Dom muttered.

"Urgh, not any more!" Roxanne said carelessly. "He was being super annoying so we're over now. No way am I wasting my last Hogsmeade visit of the year on him!"

"So we _can_ go just the three of us?" Dom brightened visibly at this. "That will be fun then!"

Hope thought of Adam. It would have been kind of fun to go with him...

But they had only spoken twice, and even then it had hardly been the conversation of the century. He had shown no signs at all that he actually liked her. Also, friends came first.

"Yes," she agreed. "Really fun!"

O

Just a week later, Hope woke up very suddenly in the middle of the night. For a while she couldn't work out what had woken her. Elodie and Natalie were whispering about something, but they always did that, nattering away long into the early hours of the morning, while Marion snored peacefully and Hope just blocked it out and went to sleep. She had always been a very deep sleeper, nightmares aside, and a few whispers didn't usually bother her at all.

She shifted onto her side, her eyes adjusting to the bright light, _moonlight_ , that was seeping in through the window. It was the full moon.

That would be it then. She knew the usual swell of sadness for her father, curled up alone in their cellar at home. Used to it he may be, but to have to experience that month on month, year after year... She so hoped that Teddy's research would soon provide a permanent cure.

She wondered what Elodie and Natalie were saying. She knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but she had never been able to help adopting James Potter's philosophy, that if people were talking about something within extendable earshot, then they really shouldn't be surprised if people heard them. And it was surely just mindless crap anyway. Hope dismissed her feelings of guilt and reached for an extendable ear from the pile of stuff next to her bed.

"…just getting so boring," Elodie was saying as she put it in her ear. "And like... I just think I can do better, you know."

Just as Hope had expected. Mind numbing chatter about her latest boyfriend. About to pull the string back out of her ear, she stopped at Elodie's next words.

"I might dump him and get together with Towler. He's definitely more in my league I reckon."

 _Adam_. Hope seethed internally at the very thought. Surely Adam would never go for someone like Elodie? But then Elodie was pretty, whatever else she might be, and she had toned down her outright unkindness over the last year or so. And she was smart and witty and a lot of boys chased after her like flies to a honeypot.

"Definitely," Natalie said at once.

"I'll ask him to go with me on the Hogsmeade trip. Then maybe you could get with Potter and we can double date."

"What you talking about?" Natalie's reply was very sharp.

"Come onn," Elodie was giggling under her breath. "I saw what you wrote in your notepad. _Natalie Potter_. With the hearts and everything."

"What were you looking in my notebook for?"

"Just to see if your homework was in there," Elodie hissed. "I didn't exactly know there would be private stuff in there, did I? Like your secret desire to become part of the Potter family."

Natalie did not answer.

"I'm joking," Elodie sighed. "Come on Nat, I tell you who I fancy, what does it matter? And just 'cos I think the Potters are full of crap doesn't mean you have to. James is kind of cute, anyway, especially since he's been doing all that beater training."

 _Ew_ , Hope thought. _James Potter is_ not _cute_.

"I bet I can make it happen," Elodie continued. "You're like, way prettier than most of the girls in his year, and he isn't going out with anyone right now."

Hope smirked to herself in the darkness. Elodie really was deluded. Like James would ever, _ever_ go out with Natalie. He might be arrogant beyond belief at the moment, but he came through for family when it mattered, and he too despised Elodie and her friend for how they had treated his cousin during their first couple of years at Hogwarts.

"Nah, I'm good," Natalie mumbled.

"Why?"

"You know… it's fine…"

"You're not bothered about Hopeless, are you? She barely hangs out with him at the moment. He's probably got sick of her too!"

"Shh," Natalie said, as Hope just rolled her eyes at the dark ceiling, far too used to Elodie's jibes to care.

"Oh, like she's awake. An earthquake wouldn't wake her up."

"Yeah but still. And anyway, it's not that. I don't fancy James, that's all."

"Then why were you doodling his…"

Elodie broke of and gave a snort. It seemed she had just clapped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud. Marion stirred a little but didn't wake.

" _No_!"

"What?"

"You don't fancy _Albus_?"

Albus? Surely not? But there was no reply from Natalie. Muffled snorts of laughter were still coming from Elodie's bed.

" _Albus Potter_? Seriously Nat? James, I understood, but not Albus!"

"Why not?" Natalie sounded very defensive.

"Well... for one thing, he's way younger than you."

"Not really," Natalie protested. "His birthday's in September, he would have been in our year if he were a couple of weeks older."

"But still, he's all skinny and scrawny and just a bit weird, isn't he," Elodie sniggered. "Also he probably fancies Scorpius, they spend enough time together! Even if you got with him, you'd have Scorpius third wheeling the whole time."

Hope was surprised to find herself feeling the smallest pang of sympathy for Natalie. How horrible to be permanently mocked by the person who was supposed to be your best friend. She and Dom and Roxanne teased each other sometimes, but they were never mean to each other or laughed cruelly in the way that Elodie was now.

Natalie was clearly not amused. "I'm going to sleep," she huffed. "Just forget about James and Albus, and tomorrow we'll work out how you're going to get together with Adam.

Sympathy pang over.

_That that didn't last long._

Hope lay there in the silence for a little while after the whispers had died away, wiling away the hours until the moonlight was no longer visible through the window. She tried to imagine Natalie asking Albus out, picturing his expression of utmost horror as he mumbled some sort of polite refusal before backing away as quickly as possible.

Sniggering internally, Hope rolled over and finally went back to sleep.

O

The very next day, James came over to see Hope, while she was sitting with Dom and Roxanne by the lake.

"Guess what!" he said, smirking. "Your favourite person came and asked Adam out. "

Hope scowled up at him. "Elodie?"

"Yep!" James said. "She came up all twirly, flipping her curls everywhere, you know how she does, and asked him if he wanted to go with her on the Hogsmeade visit. And Adam was a bit shocked and said he'd let her know, but," James looked very pleased with himself, "I told him absolutely not, as soon as she'd gone. Said she was evil and that he could do way better. I thought you'd be happy with me."

He gave her a bright grin.

"Yeah!" Hope said, looking in some surprise at James, who really wasn't one for reading people's feelings, particularly recently. "Yeah... err... thanks!"

"Did you tell him anything else?" Roxanne enquired smoothly, winking at Hope.

"Yeah," said James. "I said I didn't really think I'd be bothered about girls at all, if I were him, but that if he did want a date he should go for Stella Morton, in our year. She's way prettier and way cooler, and I heard that she fancies him anyway. So... yeah, got to dash! Just thought you'd appreciate that."

"I honestly think he meant well," Dom said, as Hope gave a groan and Roxanne looked torn between exasperation and a mad desire to laugh, as James scurried off. "I don't think he would have done that on purpose. He's just clueless."

"Yeah, I know," Hope sighed.

"Stella never keeps a boyfriend for longer than a couple of weeks, anyway, even if he does ask her out," Roxanne said bracingly.

"You could always go and ask Adam out now, before he gets a chance to ask anyone else," Dom suggested.

Hope felt mortified at the very thought. "I've got more pride than that, thanks! And anyway, I'm going with you two. We've already decided."

"Ah, well, you'll have plenty of chances next year!" Roxanne shrugged. "I reckon Adam would definitely like you back, if you get to know him a bit more."

"And," Dom said, grim satisfaction in her voice. "It has _got_ to be a good thing that he said no to Elodie."

Hope could only agree, and although Adam did indeed end up going into Hogsmeade with Stella, when Hope heard Elodie ranting to Natalie afterwards that Adam Towler had absolutely no taste whatsoever – there was no need for extendable ears this time – she thought fondly of James Potter as she drifted off to sleep. Clueless he might be, but he had definitely done her a favour that week.

**oOo**

* * *

_July_

"I can't believe that Rox got herself grounded for the very first week of the holidays," Dom sighed, as she, Hope, Rose, Lily, Hugo and Albus sat enjoying the sun down by the shore just below Shell Cottage. "She's such an idiot. She loves the beach more than any of us!"

The beach - or _their_ beach, as they liked to think of it - was particularly lovely at this time of year. Always deserted, as the only two houses for miles were Shell Cottage and the Lupins' own home, it was the younger Weasleys' favourite place to congregate in the summer months. Even Rosie had been too tempted by the hot weather to be willing to stay indoors studying on a day like today. Teddy and Victoire were there too, under strict instructions to supervise and to send everyone home as soon as it got dark, but determinedly keeping as much distance from their younger siblings as they could.

"Urgh, gross," Dom muttered, noticing as Teddy picked Victoire up and spun her round, and she bent her head to kiss him. Hope made a fake vomiting noise.

"Aww, don't!" Lily said. "I think they're _cute._ "

"That's because you don't live with Victoire," Dom snapped at her. "Just because _she_ thinks she's a princess doesn't mean the rest of the world has to treat her like one."

Hope shot Lily a warning look. Dom and Victoire were always at loggerheads anyway, and she knew that Victoire showing off her perfectly proportioned figure in a skimpy bikini was not going to improve Dom's mood. It had always been a slightly sore point that of her and her two siblings, she was the only one not to have inherited their mother's Veela colouring, cream complexion and tall, elegant frame.

Lily took the hint.

"So...err.. is Louis definitely going to Beauxbatons?" she asked. Dom softened at once and nodded.

"He wants to keep up his French, and he's really interested in Alchemy. Beauxbatons do a module on that after third year. You have to wait until seventh year at Hogwarts."

Lily nodded, looking disappointed all the same. She was very fond of Louis.

"I mean, I am happy for him," she said hastily. "It would just have been really fun with all three of us in the same year at Hogwarts!"

"It is a shame," Hope agreed. "And he would have been in Ravenclaw with us, I bet. But he'll do really well at Beauxbatons."

She finished building the pile of sticks that they had gathered for the campfire, and then sent several firecrackers onto it from the end of her wand.

"Hope!" Teddy appeared suddenly behind her, looked stern. "You know you're not supposed to do that."

"No one will know. The trace detects you doing it right next to me just as much as me doing it myself."

Teddy's expression didn't change and Hope subsided, doing her best to look meek. Teddy had her back, but rules were rules and she didn't want to push it.

"Do we have marshmallows?" Al asked hopefully, as the fire got going.

Teddy laughed.

"You think I'd dare show up at a campfire with Albus Potter and not bring any?"

It was a very enjoyable evening, as they sat chatting away and sharing the marshmallows. Even Dom and Victoire were fairly civil to each other in the end, not wanting to ruin the light hearted atmosphere. Eventually, as the sun began to set, Lily looked wistfully out at the horizon.

"This would be such a nice place for a wedding!" she sighed. "Imagine, you could put a marquee on the beach right here and enjoy the sunset. It's so quiet, no one lives round here except for you guys. Muggles can never come here. It would be soo perfect!"

Hugo just laughed. "Sure... it's perfect, Lils, but no one's getting married, remember!"

"Well... you never know..." Dom cast a crafty look at her sister and Victoire shot a death stare at her. Teddy just smiled cheerfully.

Lily, however, looked over at Hope. "Haven't _your_ parents been saying for years that they want to renew their wedding vows, because they couldn't have the people they wanted there the first time?"

A wicked grin suddenly appeared on Teddy's face as he and Hope looked at each other.

"Yes," Hope replied. "Yes, they have!"

O

"Mum, Dad. We've taken matters into our own hands," Teddy announced, as they sat down for dinner together just a couple of days later. "You've been saying for years now that you are going to renew your wedding vows. It's about time that you did."

Remus raised his eyebrows. "Well that's us told!"

"We've already picked the venue!" Hope went on. "And the date. It's going to be on the beach down from Bill and Fleur's house, in three weeks' time. It'll be plenty of time after the full moon, but before the July birthday gathering so it won't clash with that, and just two weeks after your twenty-second wedding anniversary. Couldn't be more perfect."

"Oh, yes! Twenty-two years and two weeks, that famous milestone!" Remus's eyes twinkled at his daughter. "What tradition is that then? Cotton? Velvet? Dragon hide?"

"Well it's definitely not good jokes!" Hope shot back, not batting an eyelid. "But you can't back out. The whole family's in on it. Just get preparing what you are going to say and we'll take care of the rest!"

O

"So what exactly happens at a renewal of vows?" Dom enquired, as she sat sketching out some ideas for flower arrangements, Roxanne and Hope looking over her shoulder and giving her their opinions.

"I'm not actually sure," Hope admitted. "But we're treating it like a wedding just without the weeks of planning, and without the pressure to invite a load of people we don't really want to. Minister Shacklebolt is going to do the ceremony, and Ginny's going to be Mum's maid of honour bridesmaidy person, and Harry's going to be best man. Hermione and Ron got to do that first time round. Then Granny Molly and Gran are going to prepare loads of food and Hermione's going to figure out some of the boring logistical seating stuff. And Mum and Dad sort out their vows and me and Teddy do the rest… Voila."

"I can't wait!" Roxanne said. "I love weddings, it's been ages since Charlie's!"

"I'm still so upset I couldn't go to that," Dom said, still looking down at the roses she was drawing. "Stupid Knarl flu. The last one I went to was Percy and Audrey's. And Mum and Dad wouldn't let me wear my dress."

"They did feel bad about that," Hope said at once. "I heard your dad say to my parents."

"Yeah I know," Dom sighed. "They never did it again. And anyway, it was ages ago. This one I can wear whatever I want! Although I don't actually know what that will be…" she trailed off.

"You can borrow something from me if you like," Roxanne said at once. "Mum will be able to alter it if necessary. Although," she was looking at Dom's drawing. "You should seriously start designing your own clothes, you know. You're talented enough, and Mum could put you in touch with her old friend Alicia, the one we visit in New York sometimes. She does robe designing!"

"Maybe," Dom said in a half hearted tone. Roxanne had been telling her the same thing for years now. "But not right now. Let's just focus on the wedding. Vow renewal I mean. What decorations are you going to have? Other than flowers?"

"Well your mum's making some little silver floating things, like she made for Percy and Audrey. Then we'll need colourful stuff – it is my mum, after all. So probably some of those levitating light flares from that shop in Hogsmeade. George can get some when he's up there for work."

"I'll ask him to get some of those colour changing balloons, too!" Roxanne said.

"Maybe you should get some old photos as well?" Dom suggested. "Like of their first wedding or just from over the years. And you could put them up round the marquee."

"That's a great idea!" Hope said enthusiastically. "We've got a few at home and Gran might have some."

"Harry will too, I think," Dom said. "He's probably got some of when they were younger, because he inherited all of Sirius's things."

Hope smiled, but at the mention of the man she had never met but heard so much about, a sudden pang of sadness engulfed her.

"What's up?" Roxanne enquired, seeing her face fall.

"Nothing," Hope said hastily. "It's just... I once heard Mum say that she might never have got to know Dad the way she did if it hadn't been for Sirius. And Teddy wondered if... if the reason they've put off doing this all these years is because – because they don't feel right doing it without him, you know?"

The two other girls both looked sympathetic.

"That doesn't mean they aren't grateful that you've finally encouraged them do it," Dom said, her voice gentle. "They'll love it, Hope. We all will!"

O

A few days before the ceremony, Hope, as Dom had suggested, went round to the Potters' to look at photos. Andromeda, eager to assist, had also brought over a small box of them from her house.

"Molly would have some too," Harry told Hope, setting a dusty old box down beside her. "But the chances of her finding them in The Burrow right now are slim to none. And she's in an absolute whirl with the food preparations – I wouldn't distract her from that, if I were you."

"It's OK!" Hope said. "I think there'll be enough here. But Teddy and I did tell her we just want the food to be simple."

"You can't expect Molly Weasley to keep it simple when catering is concerned," Harry laughed.

Hope just grinned and started looking through the photos. She knew that Molly was simply delighted to be involved in this day, however much of a frenzy she may have worked herself into.

"This one's nice," she said suddenly, pulling out a picture. Her mother, dressed in a white cotton dress, beamed back at them, her new husband's arm around her shoulder. "That's from their actual wedding, isn't it? Can you enlarge it?" she added to Harry.

"Of course! There are a few others from that day, I think. Although some of them don't move. Arthur had a bit of an obsession with Muggle cameras at the time, but he didn't get most of them developed properly."

Sure enough, Hope soon found an unmoving group picture, which showed her parents, surrounded by Ron, Hermione, Fleur and Granny Molly, and another man who she thought was Mad Eye Moody, her mother's mentor when she had first started as an Auror, who had died not long after.

"How come you weren't there, again?" she said to Harry and Ginny.

Ginny gave a mock scowl.

"It's a sore point," she said. "Neither of us were of age. Harry had to stay at his relatives until his seventeenth birthday and I was only fifteen at the time. I wanted to go, believe me. The row I had with Mum when she wouldn't let me. But she was right, I suppose, looking back. I had the trace on me, and that could have put everyone there in danger. And they came back to The Burrow for a bit after, I think there's a photo of that…"

Hope found that too. Sure enough, her parents stood in front of all the Weasleys, cutting a white cake which had _congratulations_ written on it in shaky silver writing. Then a couple of others, also taken at The Burrow; her mother giving Ginny a fierce hug, her father having both his hands shaken enthusiastically by the Weasley twins, Granny Molly talking earnestly to both of them, her eyes shining with emotion.

She turned to her grandmother suddenly.

"But how come _you_ weren't there?"

There was a short silence. "It was… dangerous, for us to leave the house at the time," Andromeda said. "With your grandfather's blood status and everything."

Her expression was slightly closed. Hope wasn't sure that this was the full story, but she decided not to ask any more questions.

"There is a photo of the four of us somewhere though," Andromeda went on, her face softer. "Your parents and myself and your grandfather. It was taken shortly after they were married. They lived with us for a while, you know, before getting their own place - ah yes, there you go."

Hope stared down at it. Her mother and father stood arm in arm, in between Andromeda and a smiling, sandy-haired man. Her Grandpa Ted, Teddy's namesake, who had died just before Teddy had been born and long before she had even been thought of. She looked down at him, taking in his cheerful face and kind eyes.

Andromeda held out her hand for the photo, a sad sort of longing in her eyes as she gazed into the face of her late husband. Twenty-one years now, give or take, since he had been murdered, Hope realised. Surely the pain of losing your life partner never fully left you. But Andromeda was smiling bravely. "He'll be there too, on Saturday," she said. "In his own way."

Hope smiled back, then burst out laughing as she looked down at the next photo. Her father sat on a chair, looking most unimpressed, as her mother stood over him with a pair of scissors, cutting off chunks of his hair. "That was taken at ours too," Andromeda said, an amused gleam in her eyes. "I have to say that Nymphadora did an atrocious job – that expression is entirely justified. I had to tidy it up for him myself."

Still giggling, Hope turned back to Harry's box, and pulled out an old-fashioned looking frame, which held a picture of just one woman. On first glance, Hope thought it was just an old photo of her grandmother, but on closer inspection realised that it wasn't Gran at all. The woman had jet black curls, not brown, a more harshly carved face, black eyes and very heavy looking eyelids.

"Who's this?" she said, turning it round to show them.

Her grandmother's face froze. Ginny's eyes widened. Hope felt alarmed as Harry just stared furiously back at the frame.

"I didn't know that was in there," he murmured. He seemed to be speaking mostly to Andromeda. "I'm so sorry, I thought we'd got rid of it years ago."

"But who is it?" Hope persisted.

Harry collected himself, his jaw working furiously and held out his hand to take the frame. "An evil, evil woman, Hope," he said coldly. "Trust me, you don't want to hear about her right now."

Hope was quite scared by the expression of rage on Harry's face. He took the frame and muttered something, waving his wand over it. The photo cracked silently into fragments, which then dissolved into thin air.

Hope hastily returned her attention to the photos, hoping to find one that didn't cause quite so much tension.

"Oh this one's cute! That's Sirius isn't it?"

Her mother, just six years old, with purple curls right down to her waist, grinned up at her, seated on the shoulders of a wiry teenager with floppy black hair.

"Yes," Harry nodded, his livid expression replaced with a fond smile. "That's Sirius alright."

"That one should be put up for the ceremony," Andromeda added. "Definitely."

"I think that's probably enough then," Hope said, looking down at the ones she had chosen. "Along with the ones we've got at home. I'll take them back and Teddy and I can get them ready to put up on the day. By the way," she added to Harry, as she started packing the photos into her bag. "Mum and Dad said they don't you to give a speech."

He just raised an eyebrow.

"Do you and Teddy want me to give a speech?"

"Well... Yeah, of course we do."

Harry shrugged. "Guess I'll have to use my own judgement on that then!"

O

A week later, everything was ready. The marquee was set up, the flowers arranged, the decorations, designed and enchanted by Fleur, hung wherever there was space. They had been lucky with the weather and it was another warm, clear evening.

Everything was simple, although still more extravagant than either Tonks or Remus had said they wanted. Hope and Teddy had turned deaf ears to any protests and in the end their parents had done as instructed – focused on their vows and left the rest up to everyone else.

Hope looked round at the people who were now taking their seats. Minerva McGonagall was there, looking a little frailer than when Hope had last seen her, but her face as sharp and alert as ever. Then there was Hagrid, seated on a reinforced bench that had been made specifically for him. The Longbottoms had just arrived, Michael looking unusually smart in navy blue dress robes. Hestia Jones, who was a dear friend of both her parents, and who, Hope knew, had delivered both herself and Teddy into the world, winked at her. Other than that, Hope realised, looking round the marquee, it really just was just Potters and Weasleys and her own grandmother.

For the first time, Hope thought she understood what Teddy meant about the Weasley "bubble". Her parents had plenty of other friends and acquaintances; work colleagues, other parents, people from the Ministry. But when it came down to it, the Weasleys and a very select few others were the people who were here to share this day with them. And, other than Luna Lovegood and Rolf, who had sent their heartfelt apologies that they were making huge progress with their snorkack hunt and just weren't able to squeeze in the visit, there was no one else they would have chosen to invite.

Remus was standing at the front already, wearing dark blue robes with gold trimming. He was speaking to Kingsley, who looked majestic in purple and gold, and Harry, who was wearing his usual bottle green dress robes. They all looked very at ease as they laughed together, although none more so than her father. Granny Molly commented on this.

"He didn't look anywhere near as relaxed the first time round," she whispered to Hope. "And it's lovely to see."

"He looks so happy," Lily breathed, her eyes already shining with joyful tears. Roxanne just rolled her eyes and Hope and Dom exchanged an amused look. Lily was definitely the hopeless romantic of the Potter-Weasley children.

Percy, seated at a little piano in the corner, held up his hand imperiously for silence, and Dom, Roxanne and Hope all determinedly avoided looking at each other, resisting the temptation to burst into fits of giggles. But then Percy started to play, and the urge to laugh subsided. Hope watched as her mother walked down the aisle between the rows of seats, Ginny on one side and Andromeda on the other. She was wearing a colourful dress, but nothing too bright, pastel shades of mint green and pale pink. Her hair was natural, in soft chestnut waves down to her shoulders. She winked at Remus as she approached. "Can't believe we're _finally_ getting married!"

A ripple of laughter went round the tent, soft and warming. Kingsley introduced the ceremony in his deep, calming voice, and Tonks, more seriously now, looked directly into her husband's eyes as he took her hands in his.

"Remus, you have been by my side for twenty-two years. Through the good and the bad, the ups and downs, the moments I will remember forever and the ones I would happily forget. I wouldn't have had it any other way. And I am so happy that I have a chance to tell you this, now, in front of all our friends and family, who couldn't be there the first time. But for me, the word renewal doesn't really feel right. There is _nothing_ about my love for you that has ever needed renewing. You are my best friend, my rock, my partner, just as you always have been, since the day we stood together, in that tiny little church with a handful of witnesses and were bonded for life. I loved you then. I love you now. And I will love you always."

Lily already had tears running down her face. Hope handed her friend a tissue, as Molly seemed like she would soon have need of her own.

And now it was her father speaking.

"There was once a time when I didn't think I would or could ever feel this way about anyone. A time when I couldn't even imagine anyone loving me the way that you love me. And a time when I certainly could not have pictured, even for a second, spending my life and raising my children with someone as devoted, as compassionate, and as fantastically weird," he grinned slightly, "as you."

Molly and Dom had tears in their eyes. Even Roxanne, usually so unemotional, was looking very moved.

"I don't need to imagine it now," he continued softly. "Because it's all here, right in front of me, and has been for twenty-two years. My wife, to love with all my heart. My world, to pick me up and show me the way when sometimes I can't see it myself. And now my family, our children, to raise and cherish and protect. And I will never, even for a day, not be grateful for everything I now have; never, even for a minute, worry that this isn't exactly where I'm supposed to be; and never, even for a second, stop loving you, Dora. Not now, and not for as long as I live."

Lily was now a complete wreck. Hope patiently handed her another batch of tissues, but she was feeling unusually emotional herself. She didn't cry, of course. She hadn't cried for years, meltdown on the Knight Bus at Easter aside. But she did feel a deep stirring in her chest at the beautiful words.

She watched as Kingsley spoke again, well-chosen words of emotion, compassion and love. Watched as her father bent his head to kiss his wife, as he took her hand and led her back down the little aisle between the seating and out onto the beach, where Fred Weasley was now waiting with a camera. Lily had been right, Hope thought, as the audience followed, and she took in the sight of the calm sea and the setting sun that was turning the clouds orange and pink. This really was the perfect setting for something like this.

A while later, when they were all back underneath the marquee, Harry immediately took centre stage, tapping a glass with his wand.

"Speech!" Someone called out.

Hope caught her mother's eyes across the tent and shot her a _sorry-not-sorry_ look. Harry was smiling broadly as he looked down at his two friends.

"I'll keep this short," he assured them, in response to their slightly nervous expressions. "And I guess the first thing to say, given how long you've been talking about doing this, is... about bloody time. Then again, that could have applied the first time round as well."

There were laughs and appreciative murmurs around the tent. Hope saw her mother grin cheerfully at her father and he returned it, if a little reluctantly.

"But here we are! Largely thanks to your wonderful children, of course!" Harry said. "Otherwise, I doubt it would have happened at all."

A few people patted Hope and Teddy on the back.

"I once heard Sirius say," Harry went on, looking at Remus with a deep emotion burning in his green eyes, "after a few too many beers at New Year, mind, that Remus was going to end up with a happy family, and that if Sirius had any say in the matter at all – and believe me, he planned to – that it would be a rainbow one. Of course," Harry gave an awkward laugh, "being a clueless and somewhat self-absorbed teenager at the time, I had no idea what he was referring to." Hope noticed Ginny and Hermione exchange a pointed look and Ron snickered.

"But I know now," Harry continued. "And I'll bet that Sirius knows too. He knows you made it, rainbow family and all." Harry winked at Hope and Teddy, who both smiled back. Teddy's hair was bright turquoise and Hope had turned hers vivid pink in honour of their mother's favourite shade. "He knows you're as ridiculously in love today as you were all those years ago and he's up there somewhere, enjoying this just as much as we are, several glasses of wine ahead of everyone else, moaning at me for not embarrassing you more and telling me to hurry up and stop keeping people away from the drink and the dance floor."

There were more laughs. Remus's face split into a genuine smile.

"So I'll just say this to finish," Harry said. "I'm pretty sure I speak for every person here when I say that you are the most wonderful surrogate family we could ever have asked for, and it is a privilege to share this day with you, even if it is over twenty-two years late."

Cheers followed this, and everyone drank. Hope watched as Harry put down his glass, and went over to where her parents stood, Tonks pulling him into a fierce hug as soon as he reached them. Then Teddy flicked his wand at the sound box in the corner and music started filling the tent as the lights dimmed a little and the colourful flares that George had brought back from Hogsmeade glowed in all corners. Hope stayed seated with Dom, Roxanne and Lily and watched her father lead her mother onto the dance floor.

"What _is_ this song?" Roxanne laughed, as the intro started.

"Teddy's choice, of course."

"I still can't believe you let Teddy take charge of the music!"

But Hope secretly adored her brother's weird taste in muggle music, and Dom did too, however much Roxanne and Victoire might disagree.

"I like it!" Dom said at once. "I mean... I've never heard it before. But that's generally the case with Teddy's music."

The muggle singer, whoever he was, began to sing, in deep tones that vibrated through the tent.

_"L is for the way you look at me."_

Hope watched as her father gazed down at her mother with the softest, most loving expression on his face. She stared right back up at him, her smile stretching from ear to ear, her eyes shining.

_"O is for the only one I see."_

Hope bit back a laugh as her mother nearly tripped and her father had to steady her.

_"V is very, very, extraordinary."_

"Oh they are just so _cute_ ," Lily breathed, her hazel eyes round as saucers as she watched Remus spin his wife round and pull her close again. Hope grinned yet again. Lily was a romantic soul, no doubt about that, but perhaps it was justified in this instance.

_"E is even more than anyone that you adore can love."_

**oOo**

* * *

_September_

Lily was still rhapsodising about the ceremony several weeks later, as she and Hugo sat with Dom, Hope and Roxanne on the train back for the new term at Hogwarts. Rose, whose best friend Niamh lived in Glasgow and therefore boarded the train at the border with Scotland, sat in a corner, engrossed in a new spell book. Hope had never been able to understand how Rosie could be so enthusiastic about studying before the term had even started. She found it hard enough when it was in full swing.

"…and it was just so _beautiful_ ," Lily said, her eyes shining.

"They enjoyed it, right?" Roxanne said, looking over at Hope. "They're glad you made them do it?"

Hope nodded. Her mother had, indeed, enveloped both her and Teddy in a huge hug on returning home after the party, and told them that it had been the most wonderful ceremony, better than she could even have imagined.

"Your parents are _so_ romantic, Hope," Lily sighed. "Our parents aren't like that."

"Your dad is romantic!" Dom retorted. "Didn't he propose to Aunt Ginny up a mountain at sunset?"

"Well, yeah..." Lily did not look impressed. "But that was _years_ ago. Now they are all old and boring. Hope's parents have been together way longer, and they are still adorable."

"You mean gross," Hope grumbled, but she didn't really mean it. The look in her father's eyes as he danced with his wife had made her heart ache a little. She wondered if anyone would ever look at her like that. "Anyway Dom, your parents are pretty soppy sometimes too."

Dom pulled an equally disgusted face.

"Well, they have all got to be more romantic than our parents," Rosie piped up, and the others looked over at her in some surprise. Rosie was not normally one to join in such "trivial" conversations. "Do you know how they ended up getting engaged? Mum said she wanted to have kids, and Dad was just like 'oh, but shouldn't we be married first for that?' And that was it."

They all laughed.

"I bet your parents wedding was really cute though!" Roxanne said to Rose and Hugo. "I've seen pictures. And I know Aunt Hermione goes on at your dad all the time but she doesn't really mean it. They don't argue properly. Not like my parents," she finished, looking sad.

A silence fell over the carriage.

Then, changing the subject, Roxanne turned to Lily and Hugo. "So are you looking forward to starting?"

"Yep!" Hugo said. "Although I so hope me and Lily are in the same house."

"Lily and I," Rose muttered automatically, and the others exchanged grins. That was more like the Rosie they knew.

O

Hope and Dom looked critically at the line of first years as they always did, judging each new student as they sat on the stool.

"Wait, is that _Cal's_ sister?" Hope muttered, as _Burchess, Louise_ , got called up to the front.

Dom nodded. "Half-sister, actually, I think. His parents are separated."

"Do you know how he's doing? Have you heard from him?"

Dom shook her head. "I wasn't really expecting to though."

Hope did not press the point, as Dom clearly did not want to talk about it. Louise was put in Slytherin.

"So, what do we think for Lily and Hugo?" Dom said, as the line dwindled.

Hope shrugged. "I think that wherever Lily goes, Hugo will follow."

"I don't think he'll really have much of a choice," Dom said. But Hope wasn't so sure. She thought the hat went with personal choice over everything else. It was becoming more obvious as time went on that she really wasn't a Ravenclaw. She didn't have the cool head and analytic qualities that so many of her peers, Dom included, shared. She wasn't stupid, she knew that, and not all Ravenclaws were complete brainboxes, but the hat had been right about the house not fully suiting her. And yet it had respected her wishes and put her with Dom in the end.

Lily went to Gryffindor, the hat barely touching her red curls before making its announcement. Then a Slytherin, two Hufflepuffs, a Ravenclaw and:

"Weasley Hugo."

Hugo's little face was anxious as he tripped up to the stool. The last Weasley she would ever see sorted, Hope realised, as Molly and Lucy would not be attending until after she had left and Louis would at this very minute be settling into his first year at Beauxbatons.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Hugo's face lit up and he scurried off to the Gryffindor table. He sat down next to Lily and gave her a high five, and James, seated not far away, reached round to pat him on the back. James had become much nicer over the holidays, Hope had noticed. Severely mellowed and a little more humble than before. Adam was sitting next to him. He saw Hope looking and caught her eye, his smile wide and his teeth gleaming. Hope felt a little somersault in her chest and hurriedly looked away.

But she was smiling too as she looked around the hall. Surely this was going to be a good year. Her first two years had been fun, of course, if a little marred by Elodie's unkind behaviour towards Dom. And she had spent a lot of last year worrying about Greyback and stupid, annoying Professor Edgecombe, who she still didn't understand at all. But here she was for her fourth year, after the best summer holidays of her life. Lily and Hugo had started Hogwarts, and had been placed together, just as they had wanted. Adam had just smiled at her. Roxanne and her friends had her back and Dom was more confident and sure in herself than Hope had ever seen her, no doubt emboldened by her ascension to quidditch captain and the support of her teammates. Ravenclaw still had a great chance of maintaining the quidditch cup, and Hope was resolved to work hard and do her best.

Surely _nothing_ , not even Edgy Edgecombe or nasty Elodie, was going to stop her enjoying her fourth year at Hogwarts...

**oOo**


	9. Apollo

* * *

**APOLLO**

_Plague_

* * *

_October_

Much to Hope's disappointment, it soon became apparent that Adam was still going out with Stella, and the two of them showed no signs of breaking up any time soon.

"You told me she only keeps a boyfriend for a few weeks!" she lamented sadly to Roxanne one afternoon.

"Well, she normally does!" Roxanne protested. "She must like him better than the others. He is pretty fit, after all."

"Yeah, thanks..." Hope muttered.

"They'll break up eventually!" Roxanne insisted. "If you really want a boyfriend in the meantime you could go out with Cadmus."

Hope stared at her. "What?"

"Cadmus Flint. He fancies you. Morella told me."

"First of all, gross. Second, I'm not going to go out with someone just for the sake of it. And third, how does Morella even know? I would never tell Teddy who I fancy!"

"Morella knows everything," Roxanne said. "Too nosy for her own good. So how about it?"

Hope glowered. "I hope you're joking," she said. "Cadmus is OK and all, but I am never going to _go out_ with him. Not a chance."

She sighed. "It's fine. Who needs a boyfriend right now, anyway, when we have a quidditch cup to win for the third year in a row?"

"Quite right!" Dom agreed, while Roxanne shook her head, her expression grim. She was determined that Slytherin would finally win this year. "And you'll have studying to do, remember. Your OWLs are only next year."

Hope gave an exaggerated groan. "Oh don't you start. All the teachers are already going on about it. Flitwick and Leppard are talking about practice papers, and even Edgecombe was banging on about how important they are."

"How is she with you this year, anyway?" Roxanne enquired. "Is she still being weird?"

Hope pondered this.

"Kind of..." she said. "She ignores me a lot of the time, to be honest, which is fine with me. She's been a bit better ever since the whole boggart thing. I think Neville had a talk with her about it. But... I just seem to irritate her, more than anything. And I don't mean to, honestly. Although the other day Elodie dared me to wear my hair in a pink Mohican in Defence class. So I did, obviously... I thought Edgecombe would be mad, and Elodie definitely only did it because she thought I would get into trouble. But I didn't at all, and not only that, I swear Edgecombe was actually nicer to me that normal."

"Maybe she hates your Weasley red hair then!" Roxanne said. "She's not very nice to Dom either, although she tries to hide it."

"She's fine," Dom said at once, going pink. Roxanne snorted.

"So you say. I say different. I always thought she was a bigot, but maybe it's got nothing to do with that at all, and it is actually just the hair."

"Hmm." Hope was not convinced. "Would be a bit weird to hate someone because of their hair colouring, wouldn't it? Although Ron did say once that I looked a tiny bit like Edgecombe did when she was at school, and he thought that she's just jealous that I can change my looks - something to do with some argument she once had with Hermione. But that doesn't make sense either, because if it was that she would have given me a bollocking for the pink hair, wouldn't she?"

"Oh my god, I've got it!" Roxanne exclaimed, her eyes widening in dramatic fashion. "You're secretly her daughter and you were adopted at birth and she regrets giving you up so she's angry at the world in general, and she especially hates it when you have red hair because it reminds her who you really are."

It was Dom's turn to make a sceptical noise in her throat, but for a fleeting second, Hope actually wondered if this could be true, and her heart thumped wildly. Her mother _had_ struggled to have a second child, after all. Her parents had already told her that.

Dom, however, brought her back to her senses at once. "And it's just a coincidence that Hope's a metamorphmagus like her Mum and Teddy, is it?" she said. "There are only about ten metamorphmagi in wizarding Britain as it is!"

Hope, feeling idiotic, realised that what Roxanne was saying was completely impossible. "Dom's right," she said. "Anyway, my parents would have told me if I was adopted, they would _never_ keep something like that from me! I've seen loads of pictures of my mum when she was pregnant with me, and also," she pulled a face, "remember at the vow renewal, we were talking to Hestia. She'd had too much to drink and started talking about the day I was born. She delivered me, see. You were lucky you missed that, Rox. It was so gross. Going on about Mum's labour and everything."

Dom nodded her agreement. "Way too much information," she said. "And there's no way Hestia was lying about that."

Roxanne was not to be deterred.

"Well then, maybe Edgecombe-"

"I think," Dom cut firmly across her cousin, "rather than these wild theories about love and adoption and secrecy, I think it's actually a lot simpler than that, Hope. Edgecombe's the only teacher here who didn't teach Teddy as well, isn't she?"

"Yeah... so?"

"Well, Teddy was pretty famous when he was at school, got amazing grades and everything."

"Yes, I know that thanks," Hope snapped. "You don't need to tell me that I'll never live up to him."

Dom looked quite shocked. "I didn't mean that," she protested. "Hope, that's not what I meant at all. I just meant that teachers treat us a certain way because of who we're related to, however much they try not to. James and Al and Lily get treated a bit differently because their dad is Harry Potter, you know they do. I'm just saying that I reckon all the other teachers subconsciously see you as Teddy's sister. But Edgecombe never knew Teddy. So she acts differently to how other teachers do, and you interpret it as something negative."

"So you're saying it's all in my head?"

Hope hadn't meant to snap again. It was just that she so hated to be compared to Teddy, or reminded of the legacy he had left behind him.

"I know you didn't mean it like that either," she mumbled, as Dom looked helplessly at Roxanne. "And maybe you're right. But let's just stop talking about Edgecombe and talk about people we actually like."

"Or people who like _us_ ," Roxanne said slyly. "Cadmus probably wouldn't be _so_ bad as a boyfriend, you know..."

**oOo**

* * *

_November_

The first term passed in a blur of activity, much as it always did. Dom kept her team working extra hard at their quidditch training, but none of them protested, and it paid off with a landslide win against Hufflepuff in the first match of the season, during which Dom scored ten goals, Hope scored fifteen, and Mitch Sullivan, their new seeker, rounded off the game with the most impressive capture of the snitch that Hogwarts had seen in recent years.

Whether because of her quidditch prowess, or simply her more grown up height and figure, she wasn't sure, but Hope was finding that she was attracting quite a few admiring glances nowadays, particularly from boys. She pretended not to notice (she was _not_ going to become an arrogant toerag like James Potter had been last year), and she wasn't the least bit interested in any of them anyway (there was still a good chance that Adam might be right for her, after all), but she would have been lying to say that it did not give her a bit of a boost in morale.

Her schoolwork was improving as well. She was getting good marks in Herbology, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, and even managing to pay a bit more attention in Ancient Runes and History of Magic. Potions was a categoric disaster as always, but even these classes were made slightly more bearable by the fact that they now had them with the Gryffindors, which meant she could share a work bench with Michael Longbottom and Esme Okare, and actually have nice people to talk to in class for once. Even Elodie had tired of throwing insults at her every few days, and the two of them seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement not to interact with each other at all, which was fine with her.

Looking back, Hope supposed she should have known all along that everything was going too smoothly to last.

**oOo**

* * *

_December_

"Just to warn you, Edgecombe's in a foul mood," Roxanne said, throwing her bag against the wall and sitting down on the stone bench next to Hope. It was the week before the Christmas holidays. Despite the cold, Hope had come outside for some fresh air, and was hastily scribbling down her summary for Defence Against the Dark Arts. She looked up at her two friends. Dom was looking miserable and her eyes were slightly red.

"What's up?"

Dom just shrugged. Roxanne cast a quick look around to check no one was in earshot, and then muttered, "Edgecombe wouldn't excuse her to use the bathroom. Then when we went after class, Kirstin and her gang were there and being mean."

Hope felt a surge of fury. As if life at school wasn't hard enough for Dom sometimes. And using bathrooms was a source of anxiety at the best of times for her friend, so damaging were the taunts and insults that some people had thrown at her over the years. She tended to prefer using the private bathrooms in Ravenclaw tower, but this was not always practical amidst a long day of lessons.

"I'm fine," Dom said hurriedly. "I just went in a different one. Roxanne and Morella made sure no one else was there."

"Yeah but still..."

Dom drew her knees up on the bench and rested her chin on them, looking doleful. "I hate it," she said. "I hate having to worry about it, all the fucking time. I wish I could just not think about it, like most people."

"Don't you-" Hope bit her lip. "Didn't George give you something to help with that?"

"Yeah," Dom admitted. "But he told me not to use them too often. He and Fred originally made them for the Order, for when they were on long surveillance missions and stuff, and they aren't even licenced to sell them because they're too close to being a medical product. They're fine in small doses obviously – all their products are - but they're definitely not supposed to be used all the time, because he doesn't know what the long-term effect might be."

"Maybe..." Hope hesitated, knowing that what she was about to say would not be well received. "Maybe you could see if St Mungo's had any medically approved-"

But Dom was already shaking her head. She had always had a fear of the wizarding hospital, and refused to set foot there, even though there were several longer term treatments that she could have opted for. George and Ron had invented products over the years that enabled her to live the life she was reasonably happy with, even if some things weren't ideal.

Hope did not press the subject, but Roxanne was still raging.

"It's so unfair," she said. "You should complain about Edgecombe. Or your dad should. Flitwick and Vector wouldn't stand for it, you know they wouldn't."

But Dom shook her head again. "I don't want to make a fuss," she mumbled. Roxanne looked at Hope in a resigned sort of manner.

"Well, don't worry. I'll make her pay next lesson," Hope said grimly, and Dom smiled in spite of herself. "I wouldn't," she laughed. "You aren't exactly her favourite student, are you? And she really is in a horrible mood."

Hope glared at the icy floor. " _Why_ is she in such a foul mood? She was this time last year, as well. I thought the Christmas run up was supposed to be happy!"

"It's the anniversary of The Surge this week, remember," Roxanne said heavily. "Maybe she has bad memories of that. Maybe she lost someone or something."

Hope remembered the conversation that she and James had overheard the summer before Edgecombe had started at Hogwarts, when Hermione, Ron and Harry had been talking about the new defence teacher.

"Yes, she did!" she exclaimed. "She lost her partner."

For a second, she felt guilty, but then she looked at Dom's red eyes and the irritation coursed through her again. "But it's not an excuse! All the teachers must have lost people in the last few years. My dad..." She couldn't help but make the usual comparison. "My dad lost his parents and all his best friends during Voldemort's time. And he would never take that out on his students if he was a teacher!"

Hope checked her watch. She should really make a move, especially as she had to use the bathroom herself. She would just nip into Myrtle's one on the way, but she did not mention this to her friends. Her life was so much easier than Dom's.

"See you later," she said, giving Dom a brief hug before swinging her bag onto her back.

"Be good!" Roxanne called after her.

O

"You're late." Edgecombe looked at her with irritation as she entered the classroom.

Hope scowled. She was a little late due to her last-minute dash to the loo, but it wasn't exactly going to make much difference. Several of her classmates were still standing up and taking their books out of their bags.

"Only a tiny bit."

The teacher glared at her. "Late is late, Miss Lupin. Come and see me afterwards and you can do a detention tonight."

Hope just rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion.

"And you can drop the attitude as well," Edgecombe added.

Hope sighed and made her way towards a vacant desk.

"Right, shield charms," Edgecombe went on, returning to the front of the class as Hope took out her books. "Miss Carmichael, kindly inform the class what we will be dealing with today."

Elodie stood up smugly, taking up her parchment, on which her small, rounded, pin neat writing was visible, and read out her detailed summary of what a shield charm consisted of and what it could be used for. Hope shot daggers at her back. Weren't you supposed to be a teacher's pet _or_ a total grade A bitch? How was Elodie somehow both?

"Thank you," Edgecombe said, as Elodie finished speaking. "Now, we'll be all practical today. Please pair up."

Hope hated lessons where they had to find a partner. Who the hell were you supposed to pair up with when you had no real friends in your class? She looked hopefully around for Michael, but he was already matched up with Esme Okare.

"I'm going to be with Natalie," Elodie said to Marion at once. "You'll need to find someone else."

Marion stared around the room, and moved resignedly towards the only person without a partner, Hope herself. At first, Hope felt annoyed, but then she saw Marion's face, and suppressed her irritation. Marion was looking very dejected, and Hope had never forgotten that the other girl had once defended her in front of Elodie - even if nothing had ever come of it - and had always refused to be around for Elodie's mistreatment of Dom - even if she had never done anything to stop her. She smiled properly and Marion seemed to cheer up.

Even so, it was not a successful lesson. Hope's disarming charm was strong – how many times had Harry impressed upon her that this one of the most important spells to master? – and she managed to shatter Marion's shaky protective bubble a couple of times, but she couldn't seem to concentrate enough to perform the shield charm herself.

Edgecombe swept round the room, snapping at students for doing it wrong, and it was with great relief that Hope looked up at the clock on the wall and realised that there were only ten minutes left of the lesson.

"Well, that was pretty poor," Edgecombe said to the class at large, after she had ordered them all to stop. "You will revise them and work on them before the holidays, study the theory carefully when you are at home – if you are at school for the holidays you can practise further of course - ready to try again after Christmas. Any questions, as this is the last class of the term?"

Esme raised her hand tentatively into the silence. Edgecombe looked at her and her face mellowed slightly. Hope supposed that even Edgecombe couldn't bring herself to be mean to Esme, with her tiny frame, her soft features and huge dark eyes, her black hair in two large buns on either side of her head.

"Yes Miss Okare?"

"Sorry – sorry to ask. But I was wondering if you knew – knew… If you could tell us what a Narcoviral curse is?"

Edgecombe blinked at her, clearly a little thrown.

"I really meant questions about our recent lessons, Miss Okare."

Esme looked embarrassed. Edgecombe threw a glance at the clock on the wall. There were only a couple of minutes until the bell.

"Very well," she said. "But there is not much to tell, really, as a Narcoviral Curse is simply a theory, one that has never been proven and likely never will be. The theory is that a Narcoviral Curse would cause an illness, one that affected only muggles, and that over time it would spread, diminishing the muggle population so that wizards and witches came out stronger.

The class were all looking at her wide eyed and she gave an impatient sniff as the bell sounded.

"It's a myth," she said. "A wild theory of something that isn't even plausible. Absolutely not something that could happen. Please focus on your actual work over the holidays and come back well prepared in the new year."

Hope chanced a glance at Esme. She was not looking reassured at all. But Hope knew better than to ask Edgecombe any more questions. She had far better sources of information if she wanted them.

O

Hope broached the question on the third night of the holidays, when all four members of her family were sitting eating dinner together.

"What's a Narcoviral curse?"

Her mother, father and brother all looked up at her very sharply.

"Where did you hear that term?" Tonks said. Hope shrugged.

"Someone asked Edgecombe about it the other day."

" _Who_ asked?"

Hope felt a little bewildered at their reaction. "Esme. Esme Okare. One of the Gryffindor girls."

"Her sister's a healer," Teddy murmured to his parents. "Works with Vic. And their dad works at the Ministry."

All three of them were exchanging pointed glances, and Hope knew that look only too well. _Do we tell her, do we not_? She was pretty sure that they would tell her. Honesty and openness were at the heart of their family and always had been.

"I think Teddy would be able to explain best," Remus said. "He knows the most about it."

Teddy hesitated. Hope knew that he was trying to think of ways to put it into terms that she could understand, for which she was grateful, rather than offended. Sometimes, when he talked about the specifics of his own work, she hadn't the faintest idea what he was on about.

"The theory behind a Narcoviral Curse has been around for a long time," Teddy said at last. "Since Voldemort's time, in fact, although the subject has only really been discussed and debated since his final downfall, particularly in the last fifteen years or so. But, during Voldemort's first rise to power, someone called Marmon Golpalott published an article, which concluded that, if you didn't care about blood purity – and according to him there was no point in caring about blood purity anymore, as it just wasn't a sustainable goal - there was a far more effective way to rid the world of non-magical people than dominion and open war and a dark wizard taking over."

"What's that?"

Teddy looked at her seriously.

"Disease."

Hope's throat was very dry.

"Now, as I said, at the time it was just a theory," Teddy went on. "Those who have studied the subject are pretty certain that Golpalott just wanted to cause a bit of a stir during already difficult times. He was a very eccentric individual, according to records, and theorised on all kinds of horrible ideas, but he was fairly harmless in the flesh, from what we can gather. He was descended from a long line of potioneers, and carried out all kinds of strange experiments, but he certainly never showed signs of wanting to unleash dark magic himself. In any case, he died a couple of years before Voldemort's first downfall. And many people have expressed scepticism over his ideas anyway. But, according to his theory, a Narcoviral Curse would be a curse that manifested itself as an illness, one that could run like wildfire through the entire world. And it would have... disastrous effects. Wizards would carry it without harm to themselves, transmitting it to others. Non-magical people would fall ill."

"So they'd die?"

"Not necessarily." Teddy shook his head gravely. "The aim of such a curse _would_ be to eradicate muggles, eventually, but there just aren't enough wizards and witches in the world to sustain us if all the muggle population died out at once. So the disease would need to be selective, intelligent, identifying though genetics those people that were most likely to produce magical offspring in the future, and eliminating those who weren't."

Hope stared at him.

"But - can - is that even possible? To make something that does that?"

Teddy nodded slowly. "It is far more feasible now than it was in Golpalott's time, or even a decade ago," he said. "Until about fifteen years ago, there was no way to measure or even predict the amount of magic that a person had within their blood. It wasn't even thought that it was something quantifiable. It was believed that you were either magical or you weren't and that blood and genetics didn't make the slightest bit of difference to magical powers."

"But - but I thought magical blood _didn't_ matter!" Hope said. That was certainly what she'd always been told.

"Well, in some ways it doesn't," Teddy said at once. "Not in the way that pureblood fanatics have always claimed, anyway. So called 'purity of blood' doesn't really mean anything, although squibs and non-magical offspring _are_ , admittedly, slightly less common in families that date back generations of witches and wizards. However, two muggles could produce a child with a high MDI – that's Magical Disposition Indicator, what we now use to measure the levels of magic within an individual's blood - just as easily as two purebloods could. Studies have shown that although ninety percent of people on this earth have some trace of magic in them, few have enough for it to manifest itself in any discernible fashion. Most muggles could hold your wand right now, say the words of any spell in the world, and nothing would happen, but it doesn't mean they have no magic in them at all. Your MDI needs to be very high, a measure of eighty or above, for you to classify as magical, and most of us, if we were tested, would have readings of well over one hundred. But that is how we get Muggle-born witches and wizards, when two "officially" non-magical people have the genetic make up to produce a child that _is_ magical. Your MDI fluctuates throughout your lifetime, as well, sometimes by as much as ten or fifteen percent, which is why you can get just one magical person in a family, and why sometimes, but more rarely, you get squibs. Nowadays, things like that can be predicted by those who know enough about Magienetics."

"Wait," Hope said slowly. "Magienetics, I've heard of that. That's what gave you the idea for your work on a werewolf cure."

"Yes!" Teddy looked rather pleased that she'd remembered this detail. "And it's what Jessye does. Mine and Vic's friend, you know. She started working at St Mungo's straight after leaving school, and-"

"And she studies how magical genes can be passed down in a bloodline," Hope finished. "See, I do listen to some of the things you tell me!"

"So I see," Teddy smiled. "Does that make sense, then?"

Hope's brain hurt a little, but she did understand what Teddy was saying. She was a Ravenclaw, after all, however much she might occasionally wish that she wasn't.

"Yes," Hope said. "I do get it. Although, I'm guessing it's not as simple as two people with an MDI of forty make a child with eighty?"

"If only." Teddy laughed, but not unkindly. "No, it's not nearly that simple. There are many factors that get taken into account; age, health, environment, how much the magic is actually used... Muggle magicians and psychics are often so because they naturally have elevated levels of magic, and through their work or hobbies have been training it without knowing it. They are often the most likely to have children with a high MDI. That is putting it in very simple terms though, I don't understand a lot of it myself to be honest. Jessye would be able to explain it far better than me. But the upshot of it is that there are patterns that can be analysed, things that can be calculated, specific formulas that can predict if someone is likely to produce magical offspring in the future. And there have been big advances in those studies in recent years. There was a huge breakthrough in the field made by a St Mungo's researcher about a decade ago, and Jessye's own research accounts for about twenty-five percent of the progress made in Britain since then, although of course it is studied worldwide."

"So – so this curse illness thing? If it happened... It would use patterns like that? And people with the least amount of magic in them would be most affected?"

Teddy nodded.

"Those who had little to no possibility of producing magical offspring would die. Fully magical people would carry it, but not be affected by it at all. Those who had a good chance of producing a witch or wizard child, or even grandchild, in the future would fall ill to varying degrees. They would likely survive, but would probably be weakened in some way, to allow the magical blood to come out stronger in the event of reproduction. It would take years, of course, decades, but once the curse had taken hold it would be difficult to eradicate, and eventually, if it wasn't stopped, it would ensure that only magical people were left in the world."

Hope was wide eyed with horror. She felt quite sick.

"But _could_ it happen?" she said urgently. "Is it actually possible in reality? Edgecombe said it was just a wild theory."

Tonks made a furious noise in the back of her throat. Edgecombe had been in her bad books ever since the incident with the boggart the year before.

Teddy was looking at her with sadness in his brown eyes.

"It could happen," he said heavily. "It could, Hope. We know now, after all the studies conducted over the last decade or so, that the theory behind it is perfectly plausible, even if it has never been demonstrated in practice. Magic advances every year, becomes more lethal in less obvious ways. A curse like that would take years to create, and it would be incredibly complex, not something your average person could just come up with on the spot. But if the right person had the right theory, took that theory into practice and was cold blooded enough to start the spread of the curse throughout the population, it _is_ possible. And-"

He trailed off, glancing at his parents worriedly.

" _What_?" Hope asked, looking between them. "What's going on?"

It was Tonks who took up the speech.

"There are rumours," she said. "Rumours that one has been created already. I shouldn't really be telling you but I'm not going to lie to you. Officially it's classified information at the moment but plenty of people know about it. Aurors across the world are on high alert and wizarding hospitals are already making preparations, just in case. They've been talking about it since the summer so it is possible that Esme overheard something at home and that's how she knew about it. I don't want to scare you but you also need to know. It _could_ happen. It could even be happening right now."

O

Hope tried not to think too much over the Christmas holidays about the possibility of a deadly, worldwide curse. Her parents and Teddy continued to assure her that while she should know the truth, at the moment magical organisations across the world were doing everything they could to prevent the curse, if indeed it existed, having the lethal effect it was theorised to create.

"Try not to worry about it," Teddy said quietly, after the initial conversation, when he managed to catch her on her own. Hope was still reeling from what she had learnt. "They're trying to track down whoever started this before anything comes of it! And it might all be rumours anyway. Someone just causing a stir and wanting to induce panic. There have always been idiots around who do that. Please try not to worry about it for now."

So Hope did as she was told and tried to push her worries out of her mind, as she always did, and instead focused on Christmas, an enjoyable affair for all of them as her mother was off work and the full moon was nowhere near. Also to look forward to was the Weasley New Year party, which, now that the kids were all a bit older, had replaced the traditional Boxing Day gathering. This year, it was to be held at the Potters' house.

"You look great!" Hope exclaimed, as they arrived around the same time as Bill, Fleur, Dom and Louis. Dom was wearing a dress covered with blue and gold sequins. "I made it myself," she smiled. "Maybe Roxanne was right! Maybe I will go into clothing design."

The house was already very busy. Fred Weasley had been a little mysterious in his own plans – off with a new girlfriend, Roxanne speculated – and Teddy and Victoire had gone to a party with some school friends, but the rest of the family were there. Even Charlie and Alex had come back from Romania to celebrate with them.

Hope and Dom made their way into the Potters' playroom, which had been enlarged, tidied of its usual mess and decorated with streamers, and to which the "children" were to be banished for most of the evening, at least until the countdown to midnight. Not that they minded at all. James grinned broadly at Hope and Dom as they entered.

"Snaffled some butterbeers!" he said, waving over to the corner. He raised his eyebrows at Roxanne. "Some of us should go easy on them though!"

"Piss off," Roxanne muttered. She had, admittedly, gone a bit overboard the year before. "That was _wine_ , not butterbeer."

"I'm sure I can sneak you some wine too. There's even firewhisky if you want?"

Roxanne shuddered. "I'm good thanks. I'll pass on the butterbeer too, it's basically all sugar."

"Al will be bouncing off the walls by midnight then!" Louis, who had consented to be dragged away from his holiday studying for a night, grinned at his cousin.

Albus just shrugged and added a large dash of lemonade to his own glass. Scorpius, invited along for the fun, rolled his eyes.

"Is everyone here?" Dom added. "Where are Rose and Hugo?"

"Late, as always," James sighed. "Aunt Hermione will be moaning at Ron for holding them up as we speak. I'm betting another hour at least."

Rose and Hugo, however, arrived about ten minutes later.

"You look nice!" James said, staring at his cousin in some surprise as she entered the room. She just raised an eyebrow.

"That's what Dad said," she replied. "Same tone and everything, and Mum hit him over the head for it and muttered something about him not having changed in twenty-five years."

She did look pretty, Hope observed, her thick brown hair in carefully formed curls and wearing a bright red dress that looked very striking with her dark brown eyes.

"You can hit James if you like," Lily said, but Rose just smiled serenely and shook her head.

"Right, what shall we play?" James asked, a further twenty minutes later, when everyone had said their hellos, got themselves drinks and snacks and James had firmly shut themselves in the privacy of the room. "Something interesting, not just exploding snap!"

"Truth or Dare!" Hugo said. This was cried down at once, for which Hope was grateful. She was not going to spill her most personal secrets to everyone here, but James had a habit of creating the most horrendous dares.

"Never have I ever?" Roxanne suggested.

"Ew, absolutely not," Dom said. "You can't play that with _family_. And anyway, that's a drinking game. Literally no point with just butterbeer and lemonade."

"Hide and seek!" Lily said. Everyone groaned.

"Not interesting enough," James declared. "How about secret snatch?"

There were blank stares all around.

"What is secret snatch?"

James smirked and pulled a handful of extendable ears out of his pocket.

"Everyone takes it in turns, goes off with an extendable ear, and doesn't come back until they've got a nice juicy bit of gossip. And whoever gets the best one wins."

This was met with a mix of reactions. Roxanne looked eager. Lily and Hugo grinned and Hope felt torn between a certitude that it would be fun and the knowledge that it definitely wasn't honourable. Al, Louis and Dom were looking uncertain and Rose shook her head at once.

"We can't spend all evening eavesdropping," she said. "It's wrong."

"Extendable earshot!" James said. "You know my rule."

But Rose just gave him a severe stare, and Scorpius was also looking decidedly uncomfortable. "I'm not sure I want to spy on your family," he said.

"You two could be the judges then."

But Dom was also shaking her head. "We can't," she said. "Rosie's right, it's plain wrong, and our parents already tell us quite a lot anyway. We'd probably only find out stuff they would have told us, and if we got caught then they wouldn't trust us at all anymore."

James relented with a heavy sigh. "Fine! Fine! What shall we play then?"

" _Please_ can we play hide and seek?" Lily begged. "It's my favourite! And you know you all enjoy it once you get started."

Everyone agreed reluctantly.

"You can count first though," Hugo said to his cousin. "And while everyone's hiding they can think up ideas for a better game."

Lily obliged at once. "One, two, three…"

They all scattered, half of them going upstairs. Dom hid behind the curtains in the dining room. Roxanne, with an evil grin, was already cheating and had slipped out into the back garden. Hope went into the tiny porch by the front door and then smiled to herself as she looked upwards at the cupboard that was attached to the wall. This was where her gift would come in handy. She'd need to make herself the same size as Flitwick, but she'd be able to fit inside it if she could get up there in the first place. Morphing her arms as long as they would go, she hoisted herself into it, grateful that her strength was well up thanks to Dom's intensive quidditch regime. Then she shrank herself right down – trying to ignore the feeling of discomfort as her organs compressed - and pulled the cupboard door closed. Now nothing to do but wait until everyone else had been caught. She sat there for a while and went into a daydream about Adam breaking up with Stella and realising that Hope was his ideal girlfriend instead.

There was a sudden scuffle below. Hope heard a whisper, and the sound of the porch door being pulled to.

She tried to breath silently, which was difficult as her lungs already felt severely restricted. But it wasn't Lily down there. With a sense of disquiet, she heard her own mother's voice.

"What's going on? We were expecting you ages ago, is everything OK?"

Then Harry's voice, muttering the muffliato spell, the jinx that would stop anyone overhearing their conversation. Hope however, barely two metres away, could still hear every word. She felt awkward. James's rule of extendable earshot was all well and good, but when someone deliberately made efforts not to be overheard and you were still able to eavesdrop, that was something else. There was nothing she could do, however. Harry was already speaking.

"We'll need to go in tomorrow, all of us. I'm really sorry. I know you were supposed to be off."

"It's fine," Hope heard her mother reply instantly. "But what's going on?"

"Kingsley received a message today, via holographic charm."

" _Holographic_ charm? Like, talking image and all that?"

"Yes. Completely untraceable. Triggered by a normal letter that passed all the security checks. But when he opened it, the holographic charm came out of it."

"Who of? Who from?"

"We don't know who he is. A man who calls himself The Crow. Not someone anyone recognises at all, although of course he could be in disguise for the purpose of this. Not that that's important right now, it's his aims that are the problem. He's sent the same message to magical leaders across the world."

"Saying what?"

Hope heard Harry take a deep intake of breath.

"We'll go over the full details tomorrow. But... he's released it, Tonks. The Narcoviral curse. It's spreading as we speak."

**OOO**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N Thank you everyone who has read/liked/commented so far. It is very much appreciated. The next few chapters have a slightly more complex plot and are causing me a bit of trouble to finalise but I will update as soon as I can! x


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